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The Census Religion Question: A Football Analogy
The UK is currently conducting its ten-yearly census. It includes an optional question about religion, but the question’s format has angered some humanists/atheists: “Instead of asking, ‘Do you have a religion and if so, what is it?’, the question asks ‘What is your religion?’, a closed question that funnels people into giving a religious response,…
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Is There Really No Such Genre As Humorous SF/Fantasy?
Today is not turning out to be a day to be happy. At best it’s turning out to be a day to think, and it’s not proving to be the sort of thinking that leads to outcomes I like. Why? Well I’ve got a simple ambition – simple to define that is, certainly not simple…
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A Little Twitter Love…
My first novel Game Night had a gaming theme and was consequently published by a gaming publisher, Magnum Opus Press. My second novel has a wider theme and so I’m looking to get a mainstream publisher for it – which means looking for an agent. This is a quite depressing process. What keeps me going…
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How Virgin Media Shafted Us… Again
I’ve had cable for nearly twenty years now. And in all that time, as Windsor Cable became The Cable Corporation, and The Cable Corporation became Telewest, and Telewest became Virgin Media, one thing has remained constant: that the biggest argument against going with cable, and in favour of going with Sky (satellite), is that having…
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Just How Big A Cliff Did Fianna Fáil Fall Off?
I’ve been following the recent Irish general election quite closely (those of you who’ve suffered through my various tweets and posts can feel free to put in a: “No shit! Really?” here). It’s not news that Fianna Fáil suffered a disaster of epic proportions. But I thought it might be nice to knock up a…
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The “Problem” With STV
Yesterday, I blogged that many in Ireland were calling for it to abandon its current Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system in favour of the Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) system used for the Scottish Parliament, among others. This makes me sad. I love STV. It has a purity and elegance against which MMP looks…
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Can An Electoral System Be Too Democratic?
On 5th May 2011, the British people will be asked by referendum if they wish to change the way they elect the members of their parliament, from the existing First Past The Post (FPTP) system to a system of Alternative Vote (AV). The “Yes to Fairer Votes” campaign list the following as some of AV’s…
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My Advice to Former Undercover PC Mark Kennedy
The story of PC Mark Kennedy, a.k.a. eco-activist Mark “Flash” Stone, is like something out of a Hollywood movie: He turned up with long hair, tattoos and an insatiable appetite for climbing trees. Few people suspected anything odd of the man who introduced himself as Mark Stone on a dairy farm turned spiritual sanctuary in…
Jonny Nexus 