The Blood is The Life 08-01-2013

• Help Peter David
  Author Peter David has had a stroke, and because he lives in the USA the financial implications of this are pretty bloody terrifying. If you want to help out there is information on how to do so here.
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• Son of JRR Tolkien feels like he has been screwed by the movie business
  Reads to me like his dad got a hell of a lot better deal than most authors.
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• James McAvoy says he wants to play Gandalf in The Silmarillion
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• Charlie Brooker on how to avoid catching norovirus
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• oneTesla: a DIY Singing Tesla Coil by oneTesla — Kickstarter
  This is made of awesome.
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• Emma Pickles' Makeup
  scraped from the Daily Fail, but on the plus side it means I can link to the story without linking to the Daily Fail.
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• Voters 'brainwashed by Tory welfare myths', shows new poll - UK Politics - UK - The Independent
  Linking this story again because the first comment is made of awesome.
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• 'It's like I'm an axe murderer': MP tries to find out why voters hate politicians | Politics | The Guardian
  "The consensus was that politicians came from different backgrounds, had more income and job security than was usual, and appeared – almost always on television – to spend their time bickering and avoiding difficult questions, rather than trying to find solutions to everyday problems."
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• Best Classic Who "Fact" yet
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• Why an exit from EU would be bad for British business - Richard Branson
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• Toy train company bids for the West Coast Mainline
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• Hermione Granger: Film Role Model in U.K. Survey Beats out Other Characters - The Hollywood Reporter
  Top three contains two girls and two Roald Dahl characters
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• CFP: A Comic of Her Own: Women Writing, Reading, and Embodying in Comics (UF) (Jan 15; Mar 15-17)
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• The journey with no destination
  Journo spends a night bussing with some boys. When asked about going to the job centre, the anchor boy, Keiran says: “I’ve got more chance of meeting Elvis than getting a job there.” “Who’s Elvis?” asks his friend. “Some dead brother,” says another. Kieran kisses his teeth. “Elvis was white, he just sounded black. Like Eminem.”
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• How to design the perfect welfare system
  Clue: it's not easy
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• Reasonable summary of what it feels like to be a lib dem half way through the coalition
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• Jon Worth examines the reasons for the hated of politicians
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Doctor Who Fandom Challenge Day 8: Least Favourite Season

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Season 18.

There are some stories I am very fond of in Season 18 (Keeper of Traken, for example), and my first memory of anything ever occurs at its end. I would point out that this is "least favourite" rather than "most hated".

Nevertheless, my reasons for picking season 18 are twofold. Firstly, when you watch it, you can see that Tom's heart is not in it any more. He can't even be arsed to phone it in for some episodes, and for those where he IS there he alternates between utterly manic (where he would have been quirky and charming in previous seasons) and morose and grumpy.

Secondly, the show's been Bidmeaded. The serious scifi leavened with wacky humour of the Adams years has been replaced with po-faced pretentious bollocks. Also, I really really detest Warrior's Gate. And, you know, Adric.

Lib Dem Manifesto Committee - names released

The full membership of the committee tasked with building the next Lib Dem manifesto is:

• David Laws MP, Chair
• Sharon Bowles MEP, Vice-Chair
• Duncan Brack, Vice-Chair (FPC Vice-Chair)
• Nick Clegg MP (Leader, FPC Member)
• Tim Farron MP (President, FPC Member)
• Duncan Hames MP (FPC Chair)
• Cllr Dr Julie Smith (FPC Vice-Chair)
• Dr Julian Huppert MP (FPC Vice-Chair)
• Jenny Willott MP (FPC Member)
• Baroness Sal Brinton (FPC Member)
• Jo Swinson MP
• Lord John Shipley

At first glance this lacks diversity in a couple of concerning areas. First, it's almost entirely made up of parliamentarians. Second, it's all white, very testosterone-laden, and skews somewhat to the right of the party. Third, there's a few too many of the religious types on there for my liking.

I shall be watching developments with interest. And, once more, pinning a lot of hope on Julian Huppert to bring sanity and to prevent the jerky knee tendency of some of those names...