Daily archives: June 7, 2010


links for 2010-06-07

  • Gramps is a free software project and community. We strive to produce a genealogy program that is both intuitive for hobbyists and feature-complete for professional genealogists. It is a community project, created, developed and governed by genealogists.
  • Over the years, America has developed many formidable aircraft. However, there were many that didn't get far from the drawing board, and for a variety of reasons. Some were simply before their time, while others were of no time in particular — or perhaps shouldn't have existed at all. Others still look like they were designed for a science fiction movie.
  • Millions of documents stored at the World War II code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, are set to be digitised and made available online.

    Electronics company Hewlett-Packard has donated a number of scanners to the centre in Milton Keynes so volunteers can begin the ground-breaking task.

    Many of the records at the once-secret centre have not been touched for years.

  • Three people are being questioned a water fight involving some 1,500 people that closed London's Oxford Street.

    The water fight began in Hyde Park at about 1300 BST on Friday and was still raging eight hours later.

    (tags: london silly)
  • Royal Marines in Afghanistan have begun using a new long-range rifle in their fight against the Taliban.

    Members of 40 Commando have deployed the Sharpshooter on the front line in Helmand province for about a fortnight now, the Ministry of Defence said.

  • A Scot who is believed to be the last survivor of the "Great Escape" from a German prisoner of war camp has died, at the age of 97.

    Jack Harrison took part in the famous breakout from Stalag Luft III in 1944, an event later immortalised on film.

    (tags: WW2)

The Editors’ Code of Practice

This is the document which newspaper editors are supposed to refer to to guide their behaviour. We all know they don’t, and that the Press Complaints Commission has a history of letting them get away with it. Isn’t it about time we demanded more rigorous enforcement of the code? I’ve been meaning to look into this for a while, and recent events have emphasised the need for it.