How Reading Made Us Modern - a Professor explains

My former tutor Professor John Mullan presents this wonderful and enlightening programme 'How Reading Made Us Modern' on BBC 4.

It made me want to re-read Pamela in the coffee shop in the British Library with King George III's collection towering above me.

Incidentally, one of the treasures in the BL is the Lindisfarne Gospels (late 7th/early 8th Century) - the oldest surviving translation of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John into the English language.

Koala bear Sam and boyfriend Bob are new Internet sensations

I loved the story about the koala bears Sam and Bob who were rescued from the bush fires in Australia.

Reuters provides the story but the Mail has the best pictures.


Watch the YouTube video here:

Creative Freedoms

Great radio 4 programme 'Free for All' on In Business.

Wired magazine's Chris Anderson talks about the long tail and Professor James Boyle explains the Creative Commons copyright system.

Subscribe to the podcast here.

Cute Animals Singing Christmas Songs

Great video of animals singing a Christmas song:



Thanks to the Guardian for pointing it out here.

France calls Google predator

Strong anti-Google sentiments from French publishers reveal a stuck-in-the-mud attitude prevalent throughout much old media. But who's right?

Interesting comments and round up on journalism.co.uk: French publishers vs Google: ‘You are becoming our worst enemy’

Also this video:



Laura Oliver who posted the article observes:

Google, secrecy about its algorithms and dominance of the online ad market aside, is looking forward; newspapers are trying to protect and control what they perceive as news and the news business. The problems they are facing, some related to Google and others not, should show them that this self-interested attitude can’t be maintained and their perception of ‘news as we know it’ is out-dated.

Movember is over!

Brooker Crushes

I have just, literally moments ago, discovered that I am not alone in my fondness for Charlie Brooker . . .

It started with a feed from the Guardian into my iGoogle page and now he's on TV and those clever techies have even erected a digital shrine in the form of charlian.co.uk: All Charlie, All the time.