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Why I won’t subscribe to Kindle Unlimited
Amazon has just launched Kindle Unlimited in the UK. I read a lot of books – but won’t be subscribing. Here’s why. Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited in the UK a few hours ago. Kindle Unlimited, which...
View ArticleEbola and big data: Call for help
This Economist article on the potential use of mobile phone tracking data in the West African Ebola outbreak us quite interesting. I’m not nearly expert enough to make any meaningful commentary on how...
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Ten statistics for International Men’s Day
19th November is International Men’s Day. The politics of International Men’s Day are often portrayed as complex, and many people seem to be of the opinion that it’s little more than a “me too” event...
View ArticlePoliticians talk nonsense about NHS funding
We’re 120 days from the UK General Election, and I’m already truly fed up with hearing absurd nonsense about NHS spending from politicians of all colours. Society is ageing. There are 3 people of...
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The private sector will always be involved in the NHS
A number of politicians have recently made absurd statements about the role of the market and profit in healthcare, and specifically in the NHS. In political terms, the two worst culprits are the...
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So far, Cameron is winning the TV debates debate
In the game of poker that is the planning process for General Election TV debates, Cameron—the player with most to lose—is currently playing best. The broadcasters have played worst, totally fumbling...
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News organisations are wrong about A&E waiting times
Answer me this: what happened to waiting times in A&Es in England last week? To help you answer, here are some tweets published by reputable news organisations today: A&E waiting times in...
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Driverless cars, algorithms and the ethics of valuing of human life
Today, RDM Group have unveiled the Lutz Pathfinder, a prototype driverless car. This is to be the first driverless car tested on public roads in Britain, after legislation was passed a few months ago...
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Netflix might tell us why the election polls were wrong
It’s said that so-called ‘shy Tories’ swung the General Election: those people who are unwilling to admit to pollsters that they vote Tory for fear of a negative response, but who put their cross next...
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The gathering storm of the next NHS crisis
There are roughly half a million beds in residential or nursing care homes in the UK.1 Private providers operate almost all of these beds (90%) though the sector isn’t particularly lucrative: the...
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M&S should have sacked the weatherman
Marc Bolland stepped down as Chief Executive of Marks and Spencer today, after his fifth consecutive Christmas of disappointing sales. Among the reasons M&S has cited each year for its...
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Is the Government misleading people over Junior Doctors’ Contracts?
When people accuse politicians of lying, I generally roll my eyes. Almost a decade ago, I laid into my local MP for sending me an inaccurate letter. Guido Fawkes picked it up and called the poor guy a...
View ArticleThe art of translation
I found this Aoen essay by Mark Polizzotti very interesting. He talks, with enormous knowledge and experience, about the art of translating texts and what the ultimate goal of translation should be. I...
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Skripal x Litvinenko
For the last couple of days, the news has been dominated by the story of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, who fell ill in Salisbury a few days ago. The police are investigating this as attempted murder via a...
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Will Camilla be Queen?
There is much made in the press today of a change to the Clarence House website. A passage which explained that the Duchess of Cornwall plans to use the novel title Princess Consort, rather than...
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Why the Cambridge Analytica story is a warning to Sky
Over the past week or so, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook have barely been out of the news. The central thrust of the story is that people consented to share information with Facebook and apps hosted...
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Some thoughts on print newspapers
When people who otherwise know me and Wendy very well come round to our house, they not infrequently express surprise at newspapers lying around the place. But, whatever others might think, both Wendy...
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‘Inappropriate’ A&E attendances
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post for the Fuse Open Science Blog about the system failures which lead to patients ‘inappropriately’ presenting at A&E, and how this is often blamed on patients...
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How much would you pay to keep using Google?
The Economist’s data team has today published a blog post called “How much would you pay to keep using Google?” Unusually for The Economist, the headline isn’t really an accurate representation of the...
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The credulity of most Apple coverage
Over my cornflakes this morning, I read Ben Hoyle’s interview with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, in The Times Magazine. This was one of those interviews which is sort of interesting but doesn’t really say...
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