Clean Reader: Because it's obscene

Clean Reader is software which does a search-and-replace on supposedly naughty words in e-books. Upon release, it encountered a well-deserved combination of fury, derision and hilarity; and now it is being withdrawn. I find myself with moderate dislike for Clean Reader, and absolute horror at its creators.

The town of Springfield had something much worse than Clean Reader.
Source: This is 912

(Unlike Dirty Reader, this is not an April Fool post; Clean Reader is very real.)

Nut Meets Sledgehammer: Follow-up

My recent post Nut Meets Sledgehammer looked at the case of Ross Loraine, a resident of Sunderland who was cautioned by police for an offensive tweet about a tragic accident in Glasgow. A subsequent article in the New York Times shows that in some ways, Loraine got off lightly.

Aftermath of the lorry crash in Glasgow.

Nut Meets Sledgehammer

Last month, a 19-year-old resident of Sunderland was cautioned by the police for making an offensive remark on Twitter. How can this possibly be an intelligent use of government power?

On 22 December, a bin lorry crashed into a crowd of shoppers in Glasgow, tragically killing six people. Ross Loraine allegedly tweeted:

So a bin lorry has crashed into 100 people in Glasgow eh, probably the most trash its ever picked up in one day that.

This was a cruel, stupid, juvenile statement. Twitter being what it is, I'm sure Loraine received a deluge of replies telling him as much.

However, it doesn't rise (or sink) to the level of hate speech or incitement to violence. His tweet will not motivate anyone to commit acts of violence against Glaswegians.

The BBC thought the content of the tweet was too shocking to reveal to the delicate eyes of its readers. The Glasgow-based Herald newspaper was more robust, and reproduced the tweet in full. The latter is absolutely the right decision; it allows us to see how pathetic Loraine is, and mock him for it as we see fit.

Scene of the crash in Glasgow. Source: BBC News

So What If It Is An Insult?

The staff of Charlie Hebdo showed courage and integrity, by continuing to publish after their colleagues were murdered last week; as did many ordinary people in France and elsewhere, who came out to march in solidarity with the victims.

Otherwise, the reaction has been as depressing as it was predictable.

(Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Muhammad is below the fold.)

Theology, Market Share and Charlie Hebdo

Today, the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were attacked by masked gunmen, apparently Islamist radicals. The attackers have murdered at least twelve people. My thoughts and best wishes are with the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims. This was a shameful, cowardly crime, and I hope the perpetrators are swiftly hunted down and brought to justice.

This was not only an attack on one magazine, but an attack on us all, on our freedom of speech and opinion. I value my freedom of expression on this blog and elsewhere, and I stand in solidarity with the staff of Charlie Hebdo.

I have been wondering about the mindset which drives a person to commit this sort of crime. It appears likely the attackers consider themselves to be devout Muslims.

Rioting and tear gas: Or, what I did on my holidays

I did not intend for my holiday in Istanbul to involve close observation of a battle between protesters and riot police. It just worked out that way.

What we saw

Riot police assembling in the street below our apartment.
Credit: Patrick Down / Flickr

Some friends and I happened to visit Istanbul on the first anniversary of the 2013 Taksim Square protests. I only realised this when the manager of my holiday apartment mentioned that we should be careful on Saturday 31 May. By then it was much too late to change our plans, and there weren't any official warnings, so we didn't give it much more thought.

Our apartment was located on the second floor of a nineteenth-century building in the district of Beyoğlu, formerly known as Galata. It is a fashionable neighbourhood of Istanbul, popular with tourists and the more bohemian locals; it's notable for a large number of musical instrument shops. We were about a mile from Taksim Square, and 500 meters from the British Consulate.

Saturday began calmly enough. The streets were full of people as usual, including plenty of locals. Some sort of street repairs were going on, but nothing substantial. We went out for a day of sightseeing and had an enjoyable time visiting the Sulemaniye Mosque and Grand Bazaar.

On the way back, we saw some riot police in side streets, but they were relaxed, standing around with their helmets off, talking and smoking. So we continued up to our apartment to relax before going out for dinner.

About fifteen minutes later, we noticed crowds marching in the street below us and shouting slogans.

To start with, it looked like the kind of boisterous but peaceful protest familiar from Britain. Before long, most of the crowds cleared the street; probably the police had ordered them to disperse. A few of them remained behind, and were confronted by a line of riot cops.