Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

Does what it says on the tin. Well actually it does more: it lists the RSS feeds and Twitter accounts of UK government departments, and bigs up the Central Office of Information's News Distribution Service (http://nds.coi.gov.uk/). Visit Government Department News Feeds on Twitter

Possibly one of the driest, most unappealing web pages you could hope to produce: but its content deserves so much more, which is why I’m adding it here. The House of Lords and the Hansard Society are running a competition for 11-16 year olds, in which they submit views to the Lords Communications Committee. The [...]

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire, is trying to convince Parliament to allow the posting of parliamentary footage to social media services such as YouTube. She is asking other Members of Parliament to sign her Early Day Motion in support of putting parliamentary procedures online. At the time of writing 28 have done [...]

Before you delete items from your phone make sure the backup actually worked :-/

I have a favourite tree. It’s not so much the tree itself though, as its location: slap bang in the middle of the pavement. It’s quite an old tree, and clearly the footpath has been built around it: I often wonder why it’s there. The trees are otherwise in a deliberate line, equally distanced, along [...]

My friend Mohini is adamant that Indian mangos are better than others, and she intends to prove it. To be fair, I think she’s just passionate about mangos generally; although I do know she wants to blind-test different varieties on people in the hope that the Indian ones win. Anyhow, Mohini is so passionate about [...]

"Downloading music without the permission of the copyright holder should qualify for copyright laws' exemptions for 'fair use', a Harvard academic has said. Partial responsibility lies with the music industry itself for failing to adapt, he said."

Visit Harvard professor says downloading is 'fair use'

Recently I wrote about Auntie Elsie’s music box. Unfortunately it’s impossible to tell which track is which, because – being on a cylinder – it’s not possible to tell which comes first. So I need your help. Can you match the music to the track list? Here are the tunes (in mp3 format): Auntie Elsie’s [...]

Using old Nutella jars as tumblers? Use their lids to re-seal cat food tins.

A few years ago a great-aunt died. She was a fabulous, eccentric lady, who sucked extra-strong mints and drove a succession of old Minis precariously around Surrey. Auntie Elsie had an open wood fire, a large garden with a jungle and a lion (that we never actually met), and cats who would scarper from anyone [...]