links for 2009-01-30

"To imply, as the Telegraph appears to, that Kendal Calling, the festival in question, was some sort of substance-washed bacchanalia is equally silly. In fact, more silly, because the Telegraph are turning a court report into a tragic death into a sensationalised sideshow. The paper's report makes no attempt to connect a throwaway line in a corner of a promotional booklet and the very real death of a person."

"Matthew Derbyshire has gone on loan to Olympiakos for six months, so if you want to annoy him, click this link and add some spurious information about the venomous hatred his new team's fans reserve for foreign strikers named after English counties". Inspired call to Wikipedia vandalism action from The Guardian's not-as-funny-as-it-used-to-be Fiver

"I hope that Twitter doesn't evolve into something too vacuous and unwieldy as 2009 passes, full of tedious dialogue and irrelevant bluster". I think you've got two hopes there mate. Slim and eff all. I suggest you start looking for the next thing to be 3 years ahead of the curve on ;-)

"The increase in violence in the Middle East has led to predictable consequences in Britain: a rise in anti-Semitism. There have been over 200 'incidents' since the end of December, including graffiti, anti-Jewish chants at protest rallies and, at the more extreme end, physical violence and an arson attack on a synagogue."