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• Everything you ever wanted to know about "Rickrolling"… - The man who sang "Never gonna give you up," the classic Stock-Aitken-Waterman pop song, makes an unexpected come back. (What's wrong with Debbie Gibson by the way?!)
• Lies and Statistics - Most people in Britain believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Or do they…?
• Our Bad. Wired Had Some Tips For Apple — We Were Wrong. - Fascinating to see how much things have changed in the last ten years.

• Dear ISP, I am not a target market - "Some things should just not be for sale, no matter what assurances are on offer or who they come from. Regardless of how the data is acquired and processed, and despite the powerful ISP friends Phorm has made since the PeopleOnPage days, spyware is spywa
• Happy now, bitches? - A fair and balanced analysis of yesterdays announcement of the iPhone software developer kit and "enterprise" functionality.
• Polls say 88% want EU referendum - About a year ago the Daily Mail (I think) published a poll saying pretty much the same thing. But they also asked "Do you understand the Libson treaty?" and about the same percentage of people said "No." (Can anyone find a link?) Is democracy best served

• Fifty years of LEGO - Best. Toy. Ever. And still going strong.
• Polish IT worker calculates exact speed of snail mail - Apparently snail mail is actually slower than a snail.
• For those who thought that the MacBook Air had no use… - It’s odd that Steve Jobs didn’t mention any of these uses though.

• Are You Better Off than You Were 2,000 Years Ago? - The next president of the United States of America? If only…
• Apple unveil iNvisible iBook - Even more Apple announcements this week. Kind of.
• How to Spot Arial - I never realised that Arial and Helvetica were so different!

• Apple introduces new Apple TV software, lowers hardware pricing - Now potentially more useful with the movie rentals. But where is the price drop in the UK?!
• Dell tells customer ‘Mac is good option’ - “Now, it’s possible that the techie was referring to a 1970s rock band, or to an item of waterproof clothing. But we can’t help concluding that he was indeed talking about Apple’s operating system.”
• Steve Jobs gets cohesive - Some cool stuff from Apple at the MacExpo. I think the Time Capsule is going to be on my shopping list when it ships next month. The movie rentals (when they get to the UK) look interesting but they really need to build their catalogue!
• How to recognise a good programmer - Great discussion on recognising great developers. The problem would seem to be finding them! Most recruiters just pattern match on CVs which tends to favour the “career” developer.

The Catholic Church today caused widespread controversy when it issued a statement urging the Government to overturn a law made two hundred years ago.

Clive Adams, standing outside Saint Johns Cathedral in Norwich, read the statement: “The Catholic Church is unable to comply with the Slave Trade Act, the 1807 Act of Parliament abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire. This law is incompatible with the teachings of the Bible and we cannot in clear conscience operate under such restrictions. We ask the government to consider an opt-out clause in revised legislation.”¹ Adams, an unpaid volunteer reporting to Cardinal Michael Osborn, denied that he himself was a slave.

The church suggests that past ill treatment of slaves was merely due to an incorrect interpretation of the Bible. “Sentiments of kindness and understanding vastly outnumber passages advocating beating servants and selling your daughter.”

The release also notes that the Blair administration has already repealed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1998² and suggested that it wasn’t such a stretch to go “as far as common sense leads us.”

The government has not officially commented, although some senior members of the Cabinet are rumoured to have suggested that passing new legislation might be easier if MPs “be obedient to them that are [their] masters.”

1. In case it’s not absolutely obvious, this is a parody on the recent story that the Catholic Church is, with some support in the Cabinet, seeking an opt-out of equality legislation on religious grounds.↩
2. This is actually true — Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 — although staunch Catholics should note that this does not mean that Slavery is legal.↩