Cool Tools For Men

The world financial crisis summarised in 1 sentence

2011-12-31T20:12:00.002Z

Countries and individuals with bad credit ratings got mixed in with those with good ratings, ran up too much debt, and now countries and banks are collapsing because of it.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:59:00.002Z

A merry Christmas to all my readers!

Thought of the moment: The future success of china

2011-11-01T14:49:00.003Z

Many commentators are saying that the current increase in the wealth/success of china is going to continue in the near future, and it will eclipse the West. However, it seems to me that the recent economic success of China is predicated mainly on providing cheap manufacturing labour. But theres only so far that you can ride that train. What happens when wages go up? The owners of the companies will move the factories elsewhere, chasing the cheapest labour. What happens when robotic labour truly takes over from humans? The companies will then literally own the workers/

A drop in quality

2011-11-01T13:52:00.002Z

At the weekend I was visiting an old-fashioned clothes shop in my home town in order to buy some shirts. Its old-fashioned in the sense that its independent, and run by the owner, and you get more personalised service. The shop has been going since the late 1800s, being kept in the family, but will likely close for good when the current owner retires, as his son isn't interested in taking it on. Anyway, I was talking to the owner about my work, and commuting to London daily, and he was telling me about when he used to commute in the 1970s, and how the train journey was more civilised and comfortable. As just one example: back then there was a proper buffet carriage, staffed by two stewards, serving hot food. Now there is a feeble 'cart' that some poor Eastern European pushes up and down the train, that serves just hot drinks, luke-warm drinks, and packaged snacks like chocolate bars and crisps. The shop-keeper was bemoaning a general collapse in quality across all areas of life - food, clothes, furniture, household goods - and said he felt sorry for young people today as they largely don't even know what good quality is, having little experience of it. How did we get into this position? Aren't we supposed to be richer than we were decades ago? Yet we put up with so many products and services of poorer quality.

Effects of fatherlessness

2011-10-30T09:33:00.002Z

Message I left for the journalist Peter Hitchens in response to this blog post (scroll down a bit):

Dear Mr Hitchens

I applaud you for having the wit and courage to write about the bad effects of fatherlessness. I know you write about it regularly, however I think its even more important and more central to your overall concerns than it might seem. I contend that the father-led nuclear family is the keystone that held up our civilization. Remove it, and the whole edifice starts to crumble. Drug addiction, crime, higher taxes, feckless and antisocial behavior, and so on.

The mother’s role is given to her by nature, but the father’s role is given to him by civilization. Or, rather, when society gives men a sure, guaranteed role as fathers then we get civilization.

Feminists made it their stated goal from the beginning to destroy the nuclear family, saying that it represented the ‘patriarchal oppression of women’. Of course, it succeeded in destroying the nuclear family, undoubtedly aided and abetted by politicians and big corporations (who could derive power and profits from destroying it).

Give men a role as heads of families and you give them a motivation to work hard and be responsible. Take it away and you will see an decrease in the motivation of young men, not to mention: increase in taxes, increase in problems amongst children and the young (not just lack of male role models, but depression, drug abuse, crime and anti-social behavior), children will be more vulnerable (statistically, a step-father is more likely to abuse a child than a biological father) which itself leads to heightened, even hysterical, over-sensitivity to any adult-child interactions. Societies without the father-led nuclear family become ghettos, with miserable working women (often with children by different fathers), aimless men – usually sitting around drinking or doing drugs all day, and uncontrollable children.

I wish those who want a civilized and conservative society would wake up to the key role fatherhood plays. Solve this one problem and so many other problems would be dramatically lessened.

Thought of the moment

2011-10-24T10:45:00.004Z

Currently, in many regions of the globe, we are seeing various outbreaks of civil unrest, in terms of unthinking rioting (London this summer), demonstrations against 'the system' (Greece, and the New York 'Occupy Wall Street' demos which are now spreading across the globe), and actual revolutions (the arab world). With the financial system seemingly breaking down across much of the Western world, I predict that this civil unrest is only going to escalate over the coming decade.

Whilst we live in such revolutionary times of change, there could be a better chance of men's rights activists in pushing forward some of the changes they would like to see. It seems to me that, whilst the banking systems are clearly in need of reform, the public in general is placing too much of the blame at the feet of the banks, and not enough blame on government overspending. The fact is that the Western countries are in trouble because they have been borrowing too much. The money that government spends, in the UK for example, on Welfare payments to single-mother-by-choice, on generous salaries and pensions to its own public-sector-employed staff (many of whom are in 'political' positions, forwarding a leftist, radical agenda, as opposed to doing practical, useful work), and in engaging in pre-emptory wars, far far exceeds that which they've spent on saving the banks. We need to start putting the case forward for reform to taxpayer's spending on these areas.

Misandry, the white feather campaign and World War 1

2011-09-20T09:18:00.003Z

If the work of our finest War Poets is anything to go by, the target of their resentment was not so much the men at home as the women.

And yet feminists still manage to convince everyone that it was women who were uniquely oppressed in the past.

"The “feather girls” shared this delusion that the Great War was some glorious game. It was easy for them to accuse others of cowardice, knowing that they would never be forced to prove their own bravery."

CoolToolsForMen.Net on mobile

2011-09-18T12:35:00.003Z

Cool tools for men is now available in a format optimised for smart-phones! Simply navigate to this page, as per normal, on your phone and you'll find it's in a new, easy to read format! Perfect for those long commutes!

Thought of the moment

2011-09-11T10:54:00.001Z

Feminists are for abortion on the basis that it increases a woman's options in life (ie if she cant afford to bring up a baby it doesn't tie her down with one, it prevents her from being poor etc), and that its not good for teenagers or young women to be tied down with babies,,,,,

yet,,, feminists also support and even encourage single motherhood, which often has the effect of narrowing a woman's choices, tying her down, and increases the prevalence of teenage motherhood.

Not exactly consistent thinking is it?

An American or Japanese wife?

2011-09-04T10:48:00.003Z

Richard Branson, taken from 'Screw it, lets do it' (Virgin books, 2006).

"In the early days of virgin music, I talked to some Japanese businessmen. They were very polite to a young man in a sweater and jeans who had no money. They taught me how important it was to always keep eyes and ears open and to be polite....

Respect is about how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.

The Japanese can wait 200 years for a long-term goal for their company. They don't look for the quick buck. They want slow, solid growth. One time I was looking for a partner to take a stake in Virgin music. We talked to many Americans. They wanted to invest but they also wanted to be hands-on, which means closely involved, in the running of the company. We had our own way of working, so we wanted a silent partner. We knew a partner that was too hands-on could cause conflict. I remembered the businessmen from Japan who had treated me so kindly a few years before, so we turned to the East. I asked the Japanese businessman who came to see me how he saw us working together.

'Mr Branson,' he asked gently, 'would you prefer an American wife or a Japanese wife?' American wives are very difficult - lots of divorce and alimony. Japanese wives are very good and quiet.'

Good and quiet didn't mean weak. It sounded perfect - and we went with his company."

Thought of the moment

2011-08-25T15:23:00.001Z

woe betide the feminists, and anti-male groups and websites when the communities of young male hackers start to become aware of what they've been up to. We've already seen how easily the likes of anonymous have attacked both governments and multi-nationals.

2011-08-25T14:27:00.002Z

GCSE day sees record results… but boys fall further behind as gender gap hits record level

(For those not in the UK, The GCSE's are the exams all children take at 16)

Pass the sick bags as yet again we see endless shots in the media of giggling girls jumping with joy with barely a boy to be seen.

Yet aside from all the other points I could make on this (such as the way that successive socialist administrations have weakened the lives of boys through the removal of the father and the married family from the heart of our society, or the deliberate re-engineering of the education system to be biased against boys), just think about this for a moment:

Who will be the people who take their education and truly expand human knowledge in a significant way by creating new scientific theories and discoveries, creating the truly pioneering inventions of tomorrow, and disseminating information to the whole world through writing and editing Wikipedia articles?

You only have to look around you to see that the vast majority of these people are men.

You have to wonder, apart from creating bland obedient corporate and institutional workers, does our female-rigged education system really create a good return on investment?

The Blair years

2011-08-18T20:36:00.002Z

Fredrick Forsyth, prompted by the recent investigations of News International's phone tapping scandals:

"ALL the skulduggery now being investigated seems to have started right in the middle of what we must now refer to as The Blair Years.
Is it just coincidence that the sleaziest premiership of my lifetime was co-synchronous with shoddy behaviour right across the spectrum? Politics, commerce, banking, bureaucracy, police, rigged ballots, embezzled expenses, fixed competitions, invented quotes, crooked bonuses. What are the bookies’ odds they are all completely unconnected? Or is it true that a fish rots from the head down?"

Also: Peter Hitchens: Far from getting rich on the lecture circuit, Mr Blair should be doing penitential charity work in the children’s wards of one of the many cities he helped to bomb and shell. And that’s for his own sake as well as ours.

Update

2011-08-18T20:10:00.003Z

Not had time to write a post for a few weeks - been very busy with travel, working on a new book, and reading loads (neuroscience, science fiction, and Agatha Christie!).

Some quick thought on the recent riots in my home country of England:

The left were very quick to blame this on inequality, but that explanation soon fell flat when it became clear that many of the looters - or at least the ones who got caught - were middle class. I'm not sure that its even possible to prove exactly what the real cause was - and theorising about it is just as likely to reveal ones own political prejudices as the reality of the situation. Equally, I think these types of spontaneous crowd movements are not only akin to the subconscious/irrational group mind of a society acting out, but there seems to be a real anarchic and revolutionary feeling around the world right now, in the middle east, other European countries and elsewhere we've seen large public protests and movements emerge suddenly.

However, for what its worth, I'd say that a big part of the English looting was due to a general degradation of public behaviour and morals that has been going on for many years, and is in evidence in equal amounts at the top of society as at the bottom. There is barely a week that goes by now without us hearing of corruption in many of the institutions that are supposed to make up the backbone of our nation. And as some have pointed out: is there really that much difference between the members of parliament who were shown to be abusing the expenses system - effectively stealing from the taxpayer to pay for mortgages and luxury goods - and those who looted from shops? Also, one particular incident which enraged the public was that of a young man, injured in the lootings, who was apparently offered help from a small gang, who then proceeded to rob him. 'How low', people thought, 'to steal from someone who is vulnerable, under the guise of pretending to help them.'

But isn't this exactly what our governments have been doing to us in recent years?

More BBC Bias

2011-07-24T18:44:00.002Z

BBC have paid over £70,000 to man-hating lefty, Steve Jones to advice them on their science coverage. And one of his pieces of advice is to give less airtime to those skeptical of man-made global warming.

(See more about him HERE)

As ever, the initial instinct of the left is to censor debate, rather than engage with it. Is that really the way that science is supposed to work, though, Steve Jones? If the case for man-made global-warming skepticism is so weak, why not counter it with facts and reasoned scientific argument?

Please say hello?

2011-07-23T21:15:00.003Z

If you enjoy reading this blog, would you do me a favour? Please just post in the comments of this posting your age, and the country your from.

If you have the time, also post how long you've been reading it for, where you heard about it, how often you come back, and why you like reading it.

Sometimes it feels like I'm speaking out into the dark, with no-one listening, but I know you are out there!

Thanks in advance.

How to save £10,000 over two years

2011-07-23T21:09:00.001Z

For UK readers:

How to save £10,000 over two years

The Amazing Atheist talks about the CBS 'The Talk' show

2011-07-23T11:04:00.000Z

More on Sharon Osbourne and male mutilation

2011-07-23T09:59:00.002Z

Chris Key has been observant, and noticed the following:

"What we must remember is in June Sharon Osbourne commented about severing the penis of California's previous governor -- which is a penectomy, not castration -- and disposing of the organ down a garbage disposal unit.

The case involving Catherine Kieu Becker, which was performed a couple of weeks after Osbourne's comment about mutilating the previous governor's penis, was eerily similar to the hypothetical stated by Osbourne just a couple of weeks earlier.

The similarities between Osbourne's hypothetical penectomy on the ex-Governor and Catherine Kieu Becker's case suggests the latter may have drawn inspiration from the former. A reasonable person would have come to the conclusion.

Therefore, Osbourne's condonation of Catherine Kieu Becker's crime is highly repugnant and possibly criminal. If she has any tact then she would have retracted her statements about the hypothetical penectomy on the previous governor and denounced Catherine Kieu Becker. Her choice to condone the violence suggests she is either too stupid to realise how her comments can incite violence or was so indifferent to men's suffering that she didn't care if it led to more men getting hurt. That's why I think the bitch should be fired immediately and never allowed to work within the media."

CBS supports the idea that torture and mutilation of men is funny: 'The Talk' and Catherine Kieu Becker

2011-07-22T21:10:00.010Z

This is a short and simple call to action. CBS Television recently aired an episode of The Talk about the Catherine Kieu Becker case,previously discussed here (trigger warning for the same topics). On this episode, the hosts glorified the event, mocking the victim and delighting in his torture, fantasizing about what he might have done to deserve it, and generally behaving in an incredibly repugnant and morally bankrupt manner.

And:

Example email sent to CBS

This is a truly sickening example of how many women, and those in the rotten amoral sections of the media view men. Its not socially acceptable to laugh at the torture and mutilation of animals, children or women, so why should it be acceptable to do so when the victim is a man? This is truly medieval stuff. Utterly repugnant, and truly chilling to think this daytime TV show will have been seen by countless women, mothers and children, shaping their views on what is an acceptable way to look at torture victims.

If you have even the smallest scrap of human sympathy within you, just imagine for a minute it was you. Imagine you were drugged, tied up, tortured and mutilated. Imagine that you had a body part hacked off, then destroyed, so that even the doctors would not be able to re-attach it to you. Now, imagine whilst you were in the middle of this horror-film-like situation, your heart thumping hard with fear, so scared that you are almost about to pass out, someone tells you that when this attack is covered on daytime TV, the female hosts will LAUGH about it. It will be nothing but comedy fodder to them.

What kind of society would you think you live in? What kind of media would you think we have? And what kind of influence do you think this media is having on our children?

And men, just think that whilst you are out there during the daytime, working your butts off to earn a living, these sick TV hostesses are earning way way more than you, probably ten times your salary, to spread hatred against YOU. Because they are making it socially acceptable to view men as not worthy of human sympathy. You are just an object, to be smashed up and ripped appart for laughs. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is nothing to do with you.

Every time a TV show like this spreads man-hating messages to MILLIONS of women around the world, it will make your world just that little bit colder. Women will be less willing to be friendly to you. Women will laugh if you hurt yourself or if you are going through emotional turmoil. Women will be less likely to think twice at hurting you. Female doctors will be that little bit less concerned with your welfare. The female interviewer will be that little bit less likely to hire you. And so on.

Quite frankly, we need to start viewing people who find joy in the torture/mutilation of men in the same way as we view those who get off on child porn. And those who promote this on TV, in front of millions, are, in my view, WAY worse than those who just do this privately in their home. So, these women are worse than child-porn users. Yet they are enjoying a VERY comfortable, well-paid lifestyle.

So what are you going to do about it?

I suggest that you spread this message far and wide:

1. CBS supports laughing at torture and mutilation of men.

2. Stop watching CBS.

3. Stop buying products of companies who advertise during 'The Talk'

4. Email CBS and their advertisers to explain 1 to 3

Where should you spread the message? As a starter, the following groups need to become fully aware of it (use forums, emails, twitter, social-networking sites, phone-calls, any channels possible):

1. Charities such as Amnesty international who campaign against torture

2. Religious groups

3. Groups that campaign against TV being bad influence on children

4. Mothers groups (mothers of boys especially should take note).

5. Any websites or groups that are heavily male: e.g. groups into cars, computers, gadgets, politics and so on.

6. Groups concerned with injured war veterans

7. War veterans

8. Groups concerned with the victims of crime

9. Fathers rights groups

10. Your friends, family and co-workers

Show how the issue is directly related to them, and how they must act against CBS and 'The Talk'.

Richard Dawkins tells feminist blogger to "grow up"

2011-07-16T09:36:00.002Z

Richard Dawkins tells feminist blogger to "grow up"

The incident occurred whilst the woman was at an atheist conference. She sounds like the sort of woman who is obsessed with making others conform to her view of the world.

Woman cuts off husband's penis

2011-07-13T21:04:00.003Z

A Southern California woman was in custody Tuesday after authorities said she drugged her estranged husband, tied him to a bed, cut off his penis and put it through a garbage disposal.

Several things can be observed here:

1. None of the media reports of this incident will use the terms domestic violence in relation to this woman's attack on her husband. Remember, if a husband so much as shouts or looks at his wife in a way which displeases her, the feminists who run most of the domestic violence research will include that as an act of violence. But a man being mutilated and tortured? Nah.

2. Many women will reveal their TOTAL lack of human empathy for men by saying things like "Men must be crossing their legs when they read this!" or "If you are a man, you won't like this!"

3. Many other women will reveal their HATE for men by making jokes about this. Just a couple of mins on Twitter reveals the following comments already made by women:

@yoitsme317 says: "Husbands - be nice to your wives!"

@AprilJLEva : "she cut if off and put it in the bin LOL"

@ens0204: Well this doesn't seem like a happy marriage

@Anuksut: I bet she had ample reason to!

@AyyoLana Catherine Kieu Becker A Hero To All Women

Are father's redundant or not? You can't have it both ways Mr Cameron

2011-07-04T17:38:00.004Z

A single mother has just won the right for the taxpayer to fund her to have a child with no father. See here, and here

Lets just set aside for a moment the fact that this woman is already receiving money from the taxpayer, and the fact that taxpayers are already forced to spend untold BILLIONS on supporting single-mothers (who are usually single through their own choices) at a time when pensioners are living in poverty and people are dying due to the NHS rationing certain drugs....

and instead listen to what our Prime Minister has to say about fathers:

"We need to make Britain a genuinely hostile place for fathers who go AWOL. It’s high time runaway dads were stigmatised, and the full force of shame was heaped upon them. They should be looked at like drink drivers, people who are beyond the pale."

Have I missed something here? Am I going insane?

On the one hand the laws of the land think its perfectly reasonable for women to CHOOSE to have children without fathers, and for the taxpayer to be forced to pay for this, then the law and the establishment will also REFUSE to work to ensure fathers who are kicked out of the home are able to see their children, yet at the same time, Cameron is almost inciting violence against absent fathers.

Utterly fucking astonishing.

Well, it would be if you weren't already aware of the lack of values displayed by the psychopaths who seem to populate governments.

So, when it suits women, fathers are totally unnecessary, and the costs for having a child are supposed to be the responsibility of the taxpayer. But if its at all possible to blame a man, then through his absence and/or lack of paying for his own child he becomes the worst sort of scum. How is that not self-contradictory?

Equally astonishing is the claim of the mother that: "‘I believe that it is my right as a woman to be a mother. The fact that I am single is irrelevant.."

When was this right established and by whom? And by what authority did they ascertain that the taxpayers - including starving pensioners and dying cancer victims - should fund this 'right'?

And who established that this right was more important than the rights of:

children to know their fathers?

old people, who have paid taxes all their lives, to get a decent pension?

fathers to be treated as important?

hard-earning taxpayers not to have their own money taken away for non-essential, 'lifestyle' services for women?

And to rub salt in the wound, we also learn that this woman says she " wanted a child for so long and I tried to get pregnant the normal way for ten years – even when I was with men I didn’t really want to be with."

Sounds to me like she was willing to TRICK a man into supplying her with his sperm, then most likely kick him out of her life, and the life of the future child.

And this is EXACTLY what hundreds of thousands of women in this country do, and as a taxpayer I am forced to pay for it, and also for the costs of social breakdown that ensue from this culture of fatherless children.

I urge all Brits to NEVER vote for Cameron, and to support whole-heartedly fathers for justice:

The founding father of Fathers 4 Justice, 44-year-old father-of-three, Matt O’Connor, will begin a hunger strike for equal parenting rights on behalf of fathers and grandparents on Sunday 10th July 2011 on the 10th anniversary of Fathers 4 Justice, outside the Witney home of Prime Minister David Cameron.

The value of boys today

2011-07-03T20:31:00.003Z

Seems that murder of boys is now not only not even worthy of a jail sentence

but death of boys is funny to women.

is it any wonder that we've found ourselves in this position, after years and years of media degradation of men and boys, and women like Jo Brand making hateful jokes about men?

Life extension?

2011-05-22T07:45:00.003Z

How to live forever

3 supplements that will help you extend your life

Politician in trouble for saying that not all rapes are the same

2011-05-22T07:42:00.003Z

Peter Hitchens: Some rapes ARE worse than others...there, I've said it

"Revolutionary feminism, which regards all men as predators and sees the married family as a sordid prison, has scared most politicians, most judges, most journalists, most civil servants – and most people – into accepting its nasty dogmas."

Thought of the moment

2011-05-10T11:31:00.000Z

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."

-- Thomas Jefferson

TubeCrush : Another sexist double-standard

2011-05-10T09:46:00.002Z

Male Tube passsengers beware: Flirty females are using their smartphones to capture the dishiest of the Underground's two million daily commuters, and uploading the unsuspecting men onto hit website TubeCrush.net.

Except they're not being 'flirty' at all. They are being sneeky, cowardly and a little bit creepy: taking photos of the men on the tube without their knowing or their permission. A clear invasion of privacy. No doubt years of consuming gossip magazines has 'normalised' the idea amongst these women that other people don't deserve privacy. And by browsing or sending photos into this website - where a readership of women (and no doubt gay men) can comment on the photos - they are further normalising the idea that men can be photographed without their knowledge or permission, have the photos published online where they are to be commented on by all.

'Nevermind', you might think, 'I'm sure that there's an exact equivalent website where men can shoot photos of women, unawares, and post them up for comment.'

err, only half right:

Tube Chicks has no rating system, and they only publish photos which are uploaded by the women themselves, or in which the woman has deliberately posed for the photo or given her permission.

In other words: men's privacy is being eroded by that of women is being upheld.

But what will men do about it? Sweet FA, as 99.9% of men are now total submissive bitches who meeky whine "How high madam?" when commanded to 'Jump!'

Slutwalks

2011-05-10T09:05:00.002Z

Thousands of women will take to the streets next month in the first anti-sexist "SlutWalks"

You could use the same 'logic' to argue that its fine to leave expensive valuables laying around on the seat of your car at night. Idiots.

How to jump through Internet pay-walls

2011-03-22T08:34:00.001Z

Cheeky guide on how to jump paywalls

(eg newspaper sites that charge you a subscription fee if you want to read their articles)

Thought of the moment

2011-03-01T07:45:00.002Z

Conventional wisdom (as Peter Hitchens has pointed out) is almost always wrong on everything. Why? When you think about it, conventional wisdom is the wisdom of the masses on a particular subject that they are not experts in, and probably not particularly interested in (at least not interested enough to study it in any depth). Therefore this makes them vulnerable targets to our huge public relations, media and lobbying industries, where people who DO care what the public think can then spend millions to sway the lazy and unthinking 'conventional wisdom'.

Why is it alright for women to be sexist about men?

2011-01-27T12:47:00.001Z

Giles Coren: Why is it alright for women to be sexiest about men?

How to wipe yourself off the grid

2011-01-25T10:26:00.001Z

Here are some tips on how to make the life changes necessary to completely unplug from the grid and disappear from the digital world.

Tory MP blasts 'obnoxious feminist bigots'

2011-01-24T20:47:00.005Z

Tory MP blasts 'obnoxious feminist bigots' and says men get a raw deal

Dominic Raab has stuck his neck out here in order to stand up for YOU as a man. You should show him your support by dropping him a quick email

Also, see this follow up piece in the Telegraph.

Women want to stay at home and make the husband work

2011-01-09T20:19:00.002Z

Despite years of equality campaigning and advances for women in the workplace, 64 per cent say they aspire to find a husband who brings home a larger pay packet than themselves. However, only 19 per cent want their other half to be better educated than they are.

In other words, women don't want men to have any more educational resources expended on them, despite the fact that they want men to work harder, longer and in more complex jobs. Equally, they clearly want lots of educational resources expended on THEM despite the fact that they would aspire to stay at home.

Why ARE so many American female teachers sleeping with their students?

2011-01-07T13:11:00.000Z

Why ARE so many American female teachers sleeping with their students?

'The devil's paint': how make-up changes a woman's appearance

2010-12-31T21:52:00.009Z

Chat show hostess, Oprah Winfrey:

Singer Katie Perry:

What wikileaks has shown us

2010-12-31T20:57:00.008Z

Julian Assange, the man brave enough to be the public face of wikileaks.org

The unfolding Wikileaks story has been fascinating to watch, not so much for the 'secrets' which it revealed in the recent batch of leaked documents but in the other things its shown or confirmed to us:

(1) When the establishment wish to undermine a man they will try to attack his 'sexual reputation'. I suspect a similar tactic has been employed, in an even more disgusting way, with the case of Gareth Williams (ie the speculation around his sexuality and the way such speculations were then used in the press to deflect from the possibility that he had been murdered.)

(2) Equally, its confirmed - rather depressingly - how the public interest, or at least the interest of the media, is more easily captured and held by personal speculations about one man, than about vast potential injustices, such as misconduct by governments and the military. The public is willing to overlook deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in favour of lurid tittle-tattle about one man's sex life.

(3) Vast amounts of sensitive American diplomatic communication are insecurely available to thousands who have access to a particular intranet.

(4) Various huge companies like Amazon, Mastercard and Paypal will bend to the wishes of the US Government.

(5) The web group 'Anonymous' demonstrated that large numbers of disaffected techno-savy boys and men (I think its safe to say that they have a majority male composition) are able to co-ordinate to attack powerful groups when they feel it necessary. This, perhaps, hints at future struggles for Internet freedom between the class of techno-savy ordinary men around the world, and governments and multi-national corporations.

All of which is not to say that I have unreserved support for Wikileaks. I wonder whether they should perhaps stick to exposing true injustice, as opposed to also publishing a wider range of diplomatic 'gossip' type material, which, through embarrassing governments like the US may have the unintended consequence of creating even more secretive and draconian governments. Equally, I feel a lot of sympathy for Bradley Manning, the 23 year old who is alleged to have leaked the latest documents and who has been held in solitary confinement for weeks and weeks, facing, effectively, a possible life imprisonment if found guilty.

How to use your USB flash drive as a 'key' to lock your PC

2010-12-30T10:17:00.001Z

How to use your USB flash drive as a 'key' to lock your PC

Technology 25 years hence

2010-12-29T14:33:00.005Z

Ray Kurzweil: Technology 25 years hence

And here are some of Kurzweil's predictions for the decade ahead (taken from Wikipedia)

2010s

Computers become smaller and increasingly integrated into everyday life.
More and more computer devices will be used as miniature web servers, and more will have their resources pooled for computation.
High-quality broadband Internet access will become available almost everywhere.
Glasses that beam images onto the users' retinas to produce virtual reality will be developed. They will also come with speakers or headphone attachments that will complete the experience with sounds.
The VR glasses will also have built-in computers featuring "virtual assistant" programs that can help the user with various daily tasks. (see Augmented Reality)
Virtual assistants would be capable of multiple functions. One useful function would be real-time language translation in which words spoken in a foreign language would be translated into text that would appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses.
Cell phones will be built into clothing and will be able to project sounds directly into the ears of their users.
Advertisements will utilize a new technology whereby two ultrasonic beams can be targeted to intersect at a specific point, delivering a localized sound message that only a single person can hear. This was depicted in the movie Minority Report.

2014

Automatic house cleaning robots will have become common.

2018

10¹³ bits of computer memory—roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain—will cost $1000.

2020

One personal computer will have the same processing power as a human brain.

US army to give iPhones and (maybe) iPads to soldiers

2010-12-29T10:15:00.003Z

U.S. army to give iPhones, iPads to every soldier

I wonder whether it will come with a special app for making it easy for soldiers to send photos and documents to wikileaks? :-)

Women's obsession with victimhood

2010-12-22T10:31:00.001Z

Women's obsession with victimhood exalts failure and generates nothing but excuses

Tony Blair debates Christopher hitchens on religion

2010-11-28T15:50:00.002Z

Thoughts on the apple iPad

2010-11-28T13:05:00.008Z

I've now had an Apple iPad since the beginning of the summer. Heres a summary of my thoughts on this device:

PROS:

1. Having a device which powers-on instantly is more convenient than a laptop. Its particularly useful when you want to grab it to use in bed, or when travelling (train, plane).

2. The user-interface is very smooth and slick, its a pleasure to use.

3. The availability of content is great. Via the app store and iTunes you can choose from a vast array of apps and books/films/music. Equally, once you've learned how to do it its pretty easy to convert your own films to put on the device.

4. Its really great for reading web-pages, particularly blogs.

CONS:

1. Its too heavy (no-doubt this will be dealt with in future models).

2. The lack of a keyboard really limits its use. For example, when travelling, I still need to take a laptop with me too, I can't just take the iPad. And when you are trying to minimise the amount of weight you are carrying - and you already have a laptop and a smartphone with you - the iPad just just seem like an over-indulgence. Basically the ipad is better suited to consuming information than in creating it (ie watching films, web and photo browsing and reading, as opposed to typing).

3. Its hard to use privately on a plane or train: the people near to you can see the screen easily. For example, if you want to browse your email on a train, its harder to do so privately on an iPad, compared to a smartphone.

4. Its just another device to carry: as already mentioned, if you are carrying a laptop and a smartphone already, then you dont really NEED the iPad with you (although it can be more convenient for reading, and for powering-up for quick web-browsing).

5. As theres no USB port, and it doesn't easily synch with microsoft office or google docs, its functionality for work-type document creation and editing is limited.

Summary:

The iPad is a beautifully constructed device, but is more a luxury item to carry around than a smartphone or laptop (which are essential for many of us). Its best uses are for consuming information rather than creating it. It really comes into its own as an ebook reader that can also do other things, and for reading web-pages its great. If you like to do a lot of casual web-browsing and a bit of reading around the house (in bed, on the sofa) and/or when you travel you can do without a physical keyboard, the iPad could be for you.

How to get rid of a cold

2010-11-28T12:49:00.004Z

Currently I am sat at home feeling sorry for myself as I have a cold. I usually get about 1 cold per year, which I think is probably a bit lower than average. Since the summer I've been going to the gym several times a week, and making an effort to eat healthily, and I haven't been sick in any way until now. What makes it particularly frustrating at the moment is that I'm not able to exercise at the moment: when you get into the habit of exercise, not doing any can make you feel particularly bad/frustrated!

Anyway, although you may find this to be common sense, or you may disagree with it, here are my thoughts on how to deal with a cold.

1. There is no cure for colds. Theres no magic bullet and almost certainly the vast majority of things that are supposed to get rid of it (e.g. orange juice) probably have hardly any impact beyond either comforting you, or maybe helping you fight the cold purely through your belief that they will (the placebo effect).

2. Vick's 'First Defence', if used early and often will weaken the intensity of the cold and make it last for fewer days. Its quite a vile thing to take, but it does have some effect in frustrating the cold's efforts to take hold.

3. Rest. The body needs as much energy as possible to help fight the cold, so just rest up, and drink lots of fluids.

4. Eat healthily. Now is not the time to be eating junk food to comfort yourself. Plenty of fruit and veg.

5. Two other things that can help: try flushing out your sinuses with luke-warm salt water (the unpleasant way to do it is over a sink, using a cup of salt water, snort it in then suck it through your nose and spit it out into the sink and blow your nose, the slightly easier, if more expensive, way to do it is to use a salt-water nasal spray such as Sterimar). Also, particularly before bedtime, if you are blocked up and having trouble breathing, use a decongestant like Sudafed.

Most colds take around 3 days. Good luck!

Who needs marriage: a changing instituition

2010-11-27T09:02:00.003Z

It's easier for the college-educated, with their dominance of the knowledge economy, to get married and stay married. The less well off delay marriage because their circumstances feel so tenuous, then often have kids, which makes marrying even harder.

Not a bad article, as far as it goes. But of course it fails to connect the dots. As I've said before: the rise of the full-time working woman (the 'career woman') is leading to a more unequal society. Basically what this research has shown is that those with lower incomes are finding it harder to get married and stay married. The career women don't desire lower earning men, so they tend to pair up with other 'career' driven men. This concentrates money into a smaller percentage of households than previously, when men tended to be the main earners, and would tend to marry lower-earning women (hence sharing the wealth). The irony is that feminism, which sells itself as an ideology of 'equality' is actually driving us towards a society of greater inequality.

Judge: mothers should have children taken away if they don't let the father see them

2010-11-27T08:37:00.002Z

Mothers who refuse to let separated fathers see their children should have them taken away, a senior family court judge said yesterday

Youtube audio converter

2010-11-25T21:39:00.003Z

http://vidtomp3.com

Is a pretty good site to enable you to convert Youtube videos into downloadable mp3 files.

How to digitise your CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays

2010-11-05T22:48:00.000Z

How to digitise your CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays

Stephen Fry: women only have sex with men to manipulate them

2010-10-31T12:49:00.001Z

Stephen Fry has outraged feminists in an astonishing outburst where he claimed that women only use sex to manipulate men into having a relationship

Private Eye cover

2010-10-23T11:48:00.002Z

Women's retirement age goes up

2010-10-21T07:03:00.002Z

Women to work six years longer than their mothers

How 'liberating' are you finding your feminism now, girls? lol

Of course, the other way of looking at this is that for years and years, women have been getting a massive free ride out of the system. Many women have retired at 60 and gone on to live until 90 or 100! Whilst many hard working men have performed physically demanding jobs, retired at 65 and died soon after, due to the toll the work took on them.

Dating advice: the book of Pook

2010-09-12T09:05:00.005Z

The 'Game' or Pick-up artist (PUA) movement has been growing in recent years. Basically, if you haven't come across it, its a collection of psychological techniques for pressing women's buttons in order to get them to be attracted to you.

A couple of years ago there was a man who posted on my forum, on other forums (such as a PUA forum called So Suave) and had his own blog called Pook's Mill. His basic message was that the PUA techniques were too simple, and focused on external manipulations, and focusing on others rather than focusing on yourself and your own masculinity. Anyway, many people, including me, greatly enjoyed his posts and found ourselves nodding at many of his theories. Sadly Pook disappeared from the scene, and I often get people emailing me asking if I know what became of him. Sadly I don't, but Pook, if you are out there, do drop me an email or leave a message here!

Someone has collected Pook's posts from So Suave into an ebook (PDF) that you can download for free from here:

The book of Pook

Are we living in a designer universe?

2010-08-31T20:00:00.002Z

Are we living in a designer universe?

Fascinating article.

The 'cougar' myth

2010-08-20T11:33:00.002Z

The cougar myth: how women still seek older men, and the toyboy trend never really existed

This myth was popularised by 'liberal' female journalists. The evidence they provided for it was typically that of several celebrity women who were dating younger men. I deconstructed this myth years ago in an article called 'the Oedipussy complex'.

Toy Yoda

2010-08-17T20:58:00.001Z

Boy makes a million £ by 16

2010-08-13T12:12:00.001Z

Christian Owens is a Sterling millionaire by 16 after starting his first company at 14

Feminism? Forget it sisters

2010-08-07T08:29:00.001Z

A study published this week by Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics has found that men do slightly more work than the women they live with when employment and domestic work are measured together.

Women going for 'bad boys'

2010-07-17T17:02:00.002Z

“Why do nice girls fall for bad boys?” by Carole Jahme, The Guardian
“Bad guys really do get the most girls,” by Mason Inman, New Scientist
“What’s so right about Mr. Wrong?” by Shaoni Battacharya, Psychologies
“Why Nice Guys Finish Last,” by Audrey Grayson, ABC News
“The Dark Triad: Facilitating a Short-Term Mating Strategy in Men,” by Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Gregory D. Webster and David P. Schmitt. European Journal of Personality
“The costs and benefits of the Dark Triad: Implications for mate poaching and mate retention tactics,” by Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li and David M. Buss. Personality and Individual Differences
“The Dirty Dozen: A Concise Measure of the Dark Triad,” by Peter K. Jonason and Gregory D. Webster, Psychological Assessment
“Is risk taking used as a cue in mate choice?” by Andreas Wilke and John M.C. Hutchinson, Evolutionary Psychology
“Who dares, wins: Heroism versus altruism in women’s mate choice,” by Susan Kelly and R.I.M. Dunbar, Human Nature

'Instructions for men' from 'shortlist' magazine

2010-06-18T08:43:00.006Z

Top iPad apps

2010-05-28T13:20:00.002Z

Top 10 iPad apps

Also...

Apple iPad review: a one-gadget solution for travellers?

Anonymity for men accused of rape

2010-05-20T19:41:00.000Z

Defendants in rape cases will now be granted anonymity under new rules set out in today's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition document.

Abortion to be advertised on TV

2010-05-20T12:46:00.002Z

How appropriate that Britain’s first televised abortion advert will be broadcast during a game show hosted by Davina McCall which carries the strapline: “Do you want to be given a MILLION pounds live on TV?” How wonderfully dystopian, like something from a 1980s satire on jungle capitalism, such as Robocop or The Running Man.

and Peter Hitchens writes:

I say that Marie Stopes International (which receives about £25 million a year from the NHS, much of it for killing unborn babies under contract) should be allowed to advertise its repellent services on TV.

But on one condition. That each advertisement is followed by both of these: film of an actual abortion of a 24-week-old baby, and a brief documentary reminding viewers that Marie Stopes sent love poems to Adolf Hitler in August 1939, advocated compulsory sterilisation for the ‘unfit’, and cut her own son out of her will because he married a girl who wore glasses.

What sort of organisation would name itself after such a monstrous woman?

Project Jarvis

2010-05-18T10:17:00.001Z

Project Jarvis is a digital life assistant (DLA). He uses mainly human communications means such as Twitter, instant message, and voice to create a two way connection between me and my apartment, controlling lights and appliances, notify me of breaking news, Facebook notifications, personal finances, package tracking, netflix, bittorrenting, assist in cooking, check stock quotes, weather, and more.

Cougars and toyboys

2010-05-16T07:18:00.000Z

The phenomenon of older women who pounce on young men carries certain health risks

100 goals in 100 weeks

2010-05-14T08:07:00.001Z

100 goals in 100 weeks: On the day I walk out of the door of my house in Perth, with no belongings other than my wallet and passport in my pocket, the clock starts ticking on the new challenge that I have set for myself!

The scientific evidence for popular health supplements

2010-05-12T11:24:00.003Z

Interactive graphic showing the scientific evidence for popular health supplements

Great article on life tracking

2010-05-02T09:54:00.001Z

Trackers focused on their health want to ensure that their medical practitioners don’t miss the particulars of their condition; trackers who record their mental states are often trying to find their own way to personal fulfillment amid the seductions of marketing and the errors of common opinion; fitness trackers are trying to tune their training regimes to their own body types and competitive goals, but they are also looking to understand their strengths and weaknesses, to uncover potential they didn’t know they had. Self-tracking, in this way, is not really a tool of optimization but of discovery, and if tracking regimes that we would once have thought bizarre are becoming normal, one of the most interesting effects may be to make us re-evaluate what “normal” means.

Darren's quick 'Iron Man 2' review

2010-05-02T09:24:00.002Z

Not as good as the first film. Too talky, not enough plot, and, surprisingly, only really two big, memorable action sequences (one at an F1 race in Monaco, and then the end battle). On the plus side: the action and effects are top notch, its mildly funny at times, and I loved the ACDC music!

More on the British election

2010-05-02T08:29:00.002Z

I found myself becoming irritated by focus groups' intolerance of anything that expressed disapproval or disagreement between the parties: there seemed to be something almost infantile in the insistence that political leaders must never say anything critical or disputatious – like children who don't want to hear Mummy and Daddy arguing.

Nick Clegg has just given us the best possible reason not to vote for him

Taxpayer funding single motherhood

2010-04-29T19:57:00.001Z

'Couples up to £200 a month worse off than single mothers'

Baby boy survives for two days after an abortion

2010-04-28T19:01:00.002Z

A baby boy abandoned by doctors to die after a botched abortion was found alive nearly two days later.

Absolutely disgusting. And we think we are civilised. How can doctors claim to uphold the hypocratic oath, yet do things like this? What does the law say, exactly, about these late term abortions if the baby survives? If the baby is still alive after the abortion, is it considered okay for the doctor to just leave it to die? If the baby is still alive, and the doctor then gave it a lethal injection, is that okay? Would it be okay if the doctor bashed its head in with a hammer? After all, that was the plan anyway, to kill the poor little boy. I feel ashamed to be Human sometimes.

The crazy UK election campaign

2010-04-24T08:41:00.004Z

When it comes to the UK general election campaign we are now truly in 'Alice in Wonderland' territory.

As a brief summary of some of the lunacy:

Over the last week the polls have been completely turned around by the first (ever) televised 'debate' between the three party leaders. Only the debate was so sterile and stilted not only by its agreed rules of engagement, but by the fact that the leaders are all so scared to say what they really believe because they fear scaring away the politically corrected media and the dumbed-down electorate. The election campaign has turned into something akin to Pop Idol. Why not let Simon Cowell host the next one?

The unpopular incumbent Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is clearly saying anything to reassure the swollen numbers of public sector workers and welfare payment recipients who are his core constituency. Whilst he won't explicitly state it, in his mind we are a socialist society, and he is the grand controller of the 'economy'. For instance, his party recently faced opposition from businesses to their plan to place extra taxes on employing people. He then attacked this opposition on the grounds that if they don't raise these extra taxes, it would represent taking billions out of the economy. Just think about that for a moment. He wants to take billions in extra taxes out of all the businesses in the country, and if you don't let him then that means you are taking billions out of the economy. This lunatic statement only makes sense when you realise that when he uses the word 'economy' he actually means the public sector (under his control) not the thousands of businesses that are the actual producers of wealth on which the public sector depends. Truly scary stuff.

Then we have the newly popular leader of the Liberal democrat party, Nick Clegg, whose party now have a shot at power purely thanks to the 'Pop Idol' TV debates (in which he drew on all his acting skills to play the role of Mr-Reasonable-and-Squeaky-clean). What makes this so terrifying is that the millions of impressionable young people and housewives who are thinking of voting for him almost certainly can't name, let alone critically think about even one of his party's policies. Clegg's most hypocritical stance is that he keeps lecturing us about democracy yet at the same time he is fully behind selling out whatever self-governing powers Britain has left to the hugely unaccountable and undemocratic European Union. Watching him smugly seduce the gullible public feels like watching a paedophile groom your child whilst being powerless to stop it happening. Every time his smug face pops up on the TV now I almost throw up in my mouth.

Finally the conservative leader David Cameron. Cameron has basically blown his chance at forming a strong conservative government for the country by basing his strategy around appealing to the politically corrected liberal media and dim-wits who are seduced by this kind of touchy-feely, something-for-nothing thinking. If he doesn't win office this time around, at least there is the chance (as Peter Hitchens wants) of the current conservative party imploding and a TRUE conservative party emerging in the coming years.

Finally, the country is all but bankrupt, borrowing billions a week from foreign countries just in order to fund its unsustainable lifestyle, running the biggest deficit since the second world war, despite the fact that we haven't just had five years of fighting the Nazis, but ten years of solid economic growth. Yet no-one, neither the political leaders, or the infantilised public seem willing to stand up and look this fact in the face.

Sorry to be so depressing this week, but I truly despair at this lunacy.

So how good is the Apple iPad?

2010-04-03T09:26:00.002Z

Apple's iPad: One Small Step for Tablets, One Giant Leap for Personal Computers

Yes I will probably get one. I have been thinking for a while of getting the Amazon Kindle, as I do a lot of reading. But I never could get on with the sony reader, so I'm not sure another dedicated ebook reader is really what I want (although the e-ink screens are great). The versatility of the iPad is, for me, its greatest virtue.

Men unfairly criminalised?

2010-03-21T09:56:00.003Z

Man taken to court for being naked in his own home

Man faces jail after secretly filming himself having sex with women

Both of these cases are nothing more than minor anti-social incidents, but have been blown way out of proportion due to the fact that these men had upset women.

Why don't the lawmakers just be honest with us and admit that there is now a crime called 'upsetting a woman' for which you can face jail?

'climate expert' now admits: theres been no warming since 1995

2010-02-14T11:39:00.000Z

'climate expert' now admits: theres been no warming since 1995

Feminist BS on TED?

2010-02-07T17:38:00.002Z

Feminist Eve Ensler's talk on TED sparks debate in the comments section

I didn't watch the talk, but it never ceases to amaze me how feminists and the media are so successfully able to brainwash people into thinking that there is more violence against women than against men. I suppose the way they have done it is to blind people to any alternative way of thinking about the sex of victims of violence other than male Vs Female.

So, people think of sex and violence either as men being violent against women, or women being violent against men. Because most people feel naturally more protective towards women than men, and because there is a given assumption that a man will always be able to defend himself against a woman. What this blinds people to is the far larger problem of male on male violence.

We will never move towards peace on earth until the issue of male on male violence is addressed, and feminism, by hiding the issue, and by whipping up hatred against men is making it worse, not better.

Women being fussy about short men

2010-02-07T17:31:00.002Z

As I've said before, I'm convinced that at least part of the so-called 'wage gap' between men and women is more to do with height than sex: tall people have an edge in getting paid more and men are more likely than women to be tall. Its one of those totally irrational things that tall people are probably unconsciously viewed as more intelligent and capable (I believe there is research to back this up).

However, whilst women will actively complain about the wage gap, they will simultaneously support discriminating against short men!

20 great foods you aren't eating

2010-02-07T11:33:00.001Z

20 great foods you aren't eating

The world is getting better, but the media hide it

2010-02-03T17:35:00.001Z

Systemic Flaws In the Reported World View

By Chris Anderson

Paradoxically, one of the biggest reasons for being optimistic is that there are systemic flaws in the reported world view. Certain types of news — for example dramatic disasters and terrorist actions — are massively over-reported, others — such as scientific progress and meaningful statistical surveys of the state of the world — massively under-reported.

Although this leads to major problems such as distortion of rational public policy and a perpetual gnawing fear of apocalypse, it is also reason to be optimistic. Once you realize you're being inadvertently brainwashed to believe things are worse than they are, you can... with a little courage... step out into the sunshine.

How does the deception take place?

The problem starts with a deep human psychological response. We're wired to react more strongly to dramatic stories than to abstract facts. There are obvious historical and Darwinian reasons why this should be so. The news that an invader has just set fire to a hut in your village demands immediate response. The genes for equanimity in such circumstances got burned up long ago.

Although our village is now global, we still instinctively react the same way. Spectacle, death and gore. We lap it up. Layer on top of that a media economy that's driven by competition for attention and the problem is magnified. Over the years media owners have proven to their complete satisfaction that the stories that attract large audiences are the simple human dramas. Rottweiler Savages Baby is a bigger story than Poverty Percentage Falls even though the latter is a story about better lives for millions.

Today our media can source news from 190 countries and 6 billion people. Therefore you can be certain that every single day there will be word of spectacularly horrifying things happening somewhere. And should you get bored of reading about bombs, fires and wars, why not see them breaking live on cable 24/7 with ever more intimate pictures and emotional responses.

Meta-level reporting doesn't get much of a look-in.

So for example, the publication last year of a carefully researched Human Security Report received little attention. Despite the fact that it had concluded that the numbers of armed conflicts in the world had fallen 40% in little over a decade. And that the number of fatalities per conflict had also fallen. Think about that. The entire news agenda for a decade, received as endless tales of wars, massacres and bombings, actually missed the key point. Things are getting better. If you believe Robert Wright and his NonZero hypothesis, this is part of a very long-term and admittedly volatile trend in which cooperation eventually trumps conflict. Percentage of males estimated to have died in violence in hunter gatherer societies? Approximately 30%. Percentage of males who died in violence in the 20th century complete with two world wars and a couple of nukes? Approximately 1%. Trends for violent deaths so far in the 21st century? Falling. Sharply.

In fact, most meta-level reporting of trends show a world that is getting better. We live longer, in cleaner environments, are healthier, and have access to goods and experiences that kings of old could never have dreamed of. If that doesn't make us happier, we really have no one to blame except ourselves. Oh, and the media lackeys who continue to feed us the litany of woes that we subconsciously crave.

More climategate news

2010-01-31T09:21:00.002Z

The IPCC (is) an institution now so discredited and scientifically corrupted that only those determined to shut their eyes could possibly defend it.

Controversial climate change boss used car AND driver to travel one mile to office... (but says YOU should use public transport)

Five lessons from using an e-book reader

2010-01-26T14:25:00.000Z

As someone who reads a lot and loves gadgets I’ve been intrigued by e-books and e-readers for some time. I decided to conduct an experiment: between October last year and the beginning of January this year I read books only on an e-reader, not on paper.

More bad 'climate change' science

2010-01-25T13:10:00.000Z

The world's leading climate change scientists have been caught out making unfounded claims about global warming for the second time in just over a week.

New site name: www.CoolToolsForMen.net

2010-01-06T14:36:00.003Z

Hopefully the new site name should make it a little easier for people to remember. Over the past couple of years there have been a couple of disruptions to the URL of this blog. Firstly, I had my original URL taken away by a guy who snapped it up quickly when it was coming up for renewal, purely on the chance that he could make some money from me. I then re-established the site at another address, hosted at webs.com, but then for some reason blogger stopped working properly with webs.com, and as I like to update my site through blogger.com, it messed things up. So, now I've bought a URL through blogger.com. Hopefully this will mean that the site has now settled into a permanent address! Of course, as well as bookmarking or remembering the site, you can use an RSS reader, such as Google reader, to follow posts (see the right hand sidebar for more details).

2010: The year of the tablet computer?

2010-01-05T09:46:00.000Z

Ultra-portable computers designed for surfing the internet and watching movies on the move could be one of the biggest success stories at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, say analysts.

More on women and work

2010-01-01T11:36:00.001Z

The following is a comment that was posted in response to this article.

Be it typing, driving, smoking or whatever, my opinion is that men tend to do it first, when it is a pioneering activity. When the activity becomes well known, women will also start to do it in large numbers. If it is an activity that is eventually given up, men will give it up first (as can clearly be seen with smoking, and is also true of television - a high proportion of which, being soap or reality TV of some sort, is clearly now designed for a female audience). Thus, if a study were to be done, I strongly suspect that women in the workplace will be most prolific in areas where the methods are known, and only change slowly - like management, law, medicine and retail banking, for example.

Soon more women than men will have jobs

2010-01-01T11:03:00.003Z

More women will be working than men within four years after the number of males with jobs slumped to an all-time low, say researchers.

Yet, of course, a greater proportion of these jobs that women have are either part-time or of modest pay. And many of these women can only afford to take a part-time or lowwer paid job because they are being supported by a man! (either directly: a husband or boyfriend, or indirectly: by generous benefits from the taxpayer (who is mostly male)).

The questions that aren't being asked are: How are women going to react if they increasingly become the only or main breadwinner? How is our society going to be affected by an ever-increasing population of out-of-work men? Whats going to happen to all these women in the public sector if we have to massively cut-back on taxpayer spending in this area (as the dire state of our public finances will surely demand)? Also, if women are so prevalent in being employed in the public and service sectors, someone needs to look into whether there is a bias against men applying for jobs in those areas.

Top Scientific breakthroughs of 2009

2010-01-01T08:34:00.000Z

Top Scientific breakthroughs of 2009

Pretty young women = a depreciating asset?

2009-12-31T13:10:00.003Z

Below is a response made by a man on Craigslist to a (claimed) pretty young woman who placed an ad saying she wanted to date only a wealthy man. I believe his response is of universal truth.

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament. Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I
see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in
earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold...hence the rub...marriage. It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It's
as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful" as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K
hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you're going about it the right way. Classic "pump and dump."

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

More man-made global warming skepticism

2009-12-27T16:56:00.005Z

One of the world's leading climate modelers has conceded that the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures will cool".

James Randi: some 32,000 scientists, 9,000 of them PhDs, have signed The Petition Project statement proclaiming that Man is not necessarily the chief cause of warming, that the phenomenon may not exist at all, and that, in any case, warming would not be disastrous.

The timeline of climategate

The 100 best innovations of 2009

2009-12-27T12:11:00.000Z

The 100 best innovations of 2009

Climate change is more about belief than science

2009-12-26T20:57:00.001Z

Peter Cochrane (ex head of research at British Telecom): Over the past decade I have watched 'global warming' mutate into a belief system bigger than Christianity and Islam combined. Considered debate appears to have stopped a long time ago and only dogma and belief seem to remain.

"my complaint of the climatologists modelling of the planet rests at several levels.

Their models appear to be partial, incomplete if you will, and do not accurately reflect the actual planet-wide system. This is not good news given that weather and sea systems are not only non-linear, they are chaotic too. Any minor omissions from a non-linear model are likely to have a very big impact - e.g. the 'butterfly wings' effect. But the models have very big omissions - and so we might expect some big errors!
As far as I can see there has been no effective raw material or model sharing or corroboration at the base level of model design, construction and testing. In fact, this has been resisted and there has not been a process of mutually 'looking under the hood'. As far as I am aware, and I could be wrong, nothing meaningful has been published in this regard.
Most communication between the various teams and groups has been focused on achieving corroboration and agreement in the conclusions. This is a dangerous ethos that can often lead to a collective myopia that produces the results you wanted in the first place.
The long-term source data comes from ice cores, tree rings and sedimentary layers - all of which are notoriously difficult to interpret. Add to this a very short period (250 years or so) of instrumented, and more accurate data, plus the lack of comprehensive global coverage, and it is clear that the opportunity for error is very high!
Modelling to date assumes some linear, or linear-ish, relationship between temperature and greenhouse gases. So, reduce the gases and the temperature will also reduce is an obvious conclusion. However, the reality is that the system is non-linear and it could well be bi-stable. That is, it could have flipped into a new state, or at least exhibit hysteresis. In which case greenhouse gas production could continue no matter what - after all the planet generates far more greenhouse gas than we do, and warming runaway could be real."

The future is female?

2009-12-26T17:53:00.003Z

The Future is female, job figures show

Of particular note is the post by Steve Moxon, author of 'The Women Racket':

"This is nonsense.
Only 10-15% of women work full-time continuously, and only a quarter of these are careerist (Catherine Hakim, the leading expert of women and work). These women concentrate in the areas where women have always concentrated, and not in commerce (where women are in retreat).
In male sex-typical professions like IT and accountacncy, the only reason that women are not slipping still further back is a fourfold sex-discrimation against men at the interview stage (Riach & Rich, 2006).
Thde social psychology of 'in-group' is radically different according to sex, with women NOT identifying with the workgroup (instead their sense of in-group is family/friends and others by extension). This is why women hate women bosses (as all the research on this very clearly shows). The female personal network as opposed to the male hierarchy and coalitions is incongruous in hierarchical work orgnanisations. Men, by contrast, are very well suited to what is after all a male sex-typical social organisation in the necessary hierarchy of the workplace. "

How to...

2009-12-26T17:03:00.003Z

How to use BitTorrent like a pro

How to rip Blu-ray discs

How to kick your torrent addiction with usenet

How to back up all your stuff for free, no hard-drive needed

10 reasons for Britain to leave the EU

2009-12-21T18:18:00.002Z

Daniel Hannan: 10 reasons to leave the EU

1. Since we joined the EEC in 1973, we have been in surplus with every continent in the world except Europe. Over those 27 years, we have run a trade deficit with the other member states that averages out at £30 million per day.

2. In 2010 our gross contribution to the EU budget will be £14 billion. To put this figure in context, all the reductions announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference would, collectively, save £7 billion a year across the whole of government spending.

3. On the European Commission’s own figures, the annual costs of EU regulation outweigh the advantages of the single market by €600 to €180 billion.

4. The Common Agricultural Policy costs every family £1200 a year in higher food bills.

5. Outside the Common Fisheries Policy, Britain could reassert control over its waters out to 200 miles or the median line, which would take in around 65 per cent of North Sea stocks.

6. Successive British governments have refused to say what proportion of domestic laws come from Brussels, but a thorough analysis by the German Federal Justice Ministry showed that 84 per cent of the legislation in that country came from the EU.

7. Outside the EU, Britain would be free to negotiate much more liberal trade agreements with third countries than is possible under the Common External Tariff.

8. The countries with the highest GDP per capita in Europe are Norway and Switzerland. Both export more, proportionately, to the EU, than Britain does.

9. Outside the EU, Britain could be a deregulated, competitive, offshore haven.

10. Oh, and we’d be a democracy again.

Women-only library seats in Birmingham

2009-12-13T12:32:00.001Z

Last week the present author visited Birmingham Central Library in England, UK. I was astonished to find signs all over the library reading: ‘This desk is for the use of women only’.

Thank god women now have their own seats in Birmingham library. This small measure will undoubtedly save thousands of poor innocent women's lives per year. Its such a blessing that our tax money is being spent in this way.

Can I become faster and smarter?

2009-12-13T09:37:00.001Z

Peter Cochrane: I just cannot work any faster or smarter - I seem to have exhausted every degree of freedom, every element of efficiency improvement I can muster.

Fey Weldon: Please don't blame feminism

2009-12-02T12:28:00.002Z

Feminism is too easy a target for those who rue the absence of stable relationships and family life. Capitalism is the real villain

Ms Weldon conveniently side-steps the fact that for years feminists worked hard to demonise marriage, and men in the eyes of women, and that feminist organisations gained power and public money through the government and the media. To look at the success of feminist thought, look at the prevalence today of abortion. Yes you could say that capitalism might have supported abortion, as it allowed the woman to carry on working, but equally you could say that capitalism would be against abortion as the more people there are around, the more products companies can sell.

More on climategate

2009-11-29T08:57:00.003Z

Leading British scientists at the University of East Anglia, who were accused of manipulating climate change data - dubbed Climategate - have agreed to publish their figures in full.

Of course, one of the touchstones of proper science is supposed to be that scientists publish their data openly for examination, and for other scientists to try to replicate. Yes, much of the activity that is going on in the world under the banner of science is not open, but this is because its either military research or research by commercial companies who are hoping to discover information that they can protect. Yet why on earth should such university departments - supposedly studying a subject that will affect us all - keep their data secret?

Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our time

The inconvenient truths Mr Gore and his fanatical friends DIDN'T tell you about climate change

So, who do women think does all the work?

2009-11-24T08:01:00.001Z

It seems that the idea of the "useless man" slobbing around the home while his woman does all the work is nothing but a post-feminist myth. According to Rebecca Meisenbach, from Missouri University, it has been propagated by women who feel "an overwhelming sense of guilt" at having a career, rather than fulfilling their traditional gender role of wife and mother.

Only a couple of year ago, the telegraph would never have published this article!