A Shout-out for the BBC: Desert Island Discs

You want time-waster?  I'll show you time-waster: the BBC has opened up what looks to be the entire archiveDesert Island Discs--that's the show where they interview folks about the music they'd want to be cast away with. Well: "entire archive" seems not to mean entire archive, in that some programs appear to be unavailable and I can't always tell why.  But I think what I'd like to take away to a desert island is not any particular episode but the archive itself. of

Update: The Horrors of Socialized Medicine

Be afraid, be very afraid.

In the event of an attempted suicide, the Trust will employ all reasonably practicable measures to insure a successful outcome

—Nottingham University Hospital’s NHS Trusts Policy Guidelines

HT: BBC News Quiz

Theology Note

It is easier for a rich man to enter a camel than to pass a needle.

Source: BBC

The Old One Resigned To Spend More Time With His Family

Times (London) headline:

Society of Jesus Seeks New Leader

From BBC News Quiz.

Or Perhaps You Knew...

Kottke is impressed that you have cell phone coverage atop Mount Everest (link).

26. Harvesting rhubarb in candlelight helps preserve its flavour.

29. The average duvet is home to 20,000 live dust mites.

34. Kryptonite exists.

55. Books used to be bound in human skin.

87. Relocating crocodiles doesn't work - they come back.

Re #55, my high school Civics teacher told me that the second edition of Rosseau's Confessions was bound in the skins of those who had not read the first.

BBC: Bill Gates' Bitch?

I’m not competent to say much of anything about technical computer stuff, but it seems to me this story must be huge (link):

With today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.

… No chance then for the millions of the worlds poorest children who are about to receive the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer to be able to view BBC educational programming. The OLPC runs only Free Software and Free Software is, of course, the main competitive threat to Microsoft. I don't expect we will see an iPlayer built to the principles of free software whilst this incompetent BBC governance is maintained. …

Turns out (per DefectivebyDesign.org) that Bill Gates has locked up the British Labour Party brass:

You may not know this, but Gordon is tight with Bill, and the Labour Party is tight with Microsoft. And after 10 years of one party rule, the UK is a politically tied up Microsoft shop. Everything else that follows in relation to the iPlayer can be connected to this corrupting political association. No one in the ruling Labour party is really going to question the corruption of the BBC. I predict the outcome of the petition to Gordon Brown http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/iplayer/ that has over 12,000 signatures and calls for the iPLayer to be available to all operating systems, will be the wooly, "The BBC is committed blah blah". Meantime Microsoft has been given a monopoly for distribution of BBC programming. …

HT: Boingboing (link).

From the BBC

Where do babies come from?

A stork flew out of the blueberry bush, and daddy was so amazed he didn't see the milkman nicking in by the back door.

Life: More than Just Opera

From the BBC:

"Viagra isn't all it's cracked up to be," one woman said. "I finally decided the problem was my boyfriend. Now I have sex six times a day. But I do miss going to the opera."

Oh Stop That

Lesbian couple seeks sperm donor with flexible involvement.

--BBC News Quiz