links for 2010-01-28

"FIVE councillors in Cornwall have been criticised as 'a bunch of teenagers' after they shared 'inappropriate' electronic messages between them during an important council debate. During the meeting – on councillors' allowances and housing – the five men used their mobile phones to send or receive messages to each other using the Internet networking website, Twitter". Reports that some other councillors were caught talking in the back row and passing notes to each other remain unconfirmed...

This case seems to take 'I hate what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it' and twist it into 'I think you are a rather boorish oaf, but I'll defend your right to be a boorish oaf against the vague whims of inconsistent regulation or until everybody loses interest and goes home'

"We were building the Parthenon when they were still living in trees". Dear Giorgos Karatzaferis, my scientific friends and I beg to differ...

Any diagram with a layer for "Hypocrites and people who threaten to leave but stay" is fine by me :-)

Always lovely to see behind the scenes of someone else's design process.