The other day we were having dinner, and I asserted that Bradley Manning was being tortured. Scepticism was evident in some quarters. One problem is that we don't know for sure how he's being treated. The Guardian reports that on Monday 11th April 2011:

[Juan] Mendez, the UN special rapporteur …

Call me a late adopter, but I thought I'd give Google's Webmaster Tools a go. I pointed it at MtrHub and it found a bug. It found that even if you'd set a meter to be public, you still couldn't see individual reads without being logged in. It found it …

We were discussing the UK-US extradition treaty, and how it's unfair because it's not reciprocal. Then the question came up of the standard of proof that's required to extradite someone from the UK to the US. I claimed it was very low, but had no evidence to back it up …

Have done already. Did it about a month ago, when my previous bill arrived with its half a tree of promotional guff. That's how I know they are dragging their heels!

Tell you what, if you write one I'll publish it here.

I recently asked Wiltshire County Council:

Hi, I've just received my council tax bill, and I wondered if there was a paperless billing option? Eg. the bill could be emailed out, and the accompanying booklet could be online.

Here's their reply:

RE: Online council tax billing and booklets

Currently Wiltshire …

In the recent war in Libya I think we've done the right thing so far. It's been legal, and I agree with resolution 1973. David Cameron is now talking about arming the rebels. I don't think this would be legal, as it would contravene UN resolution 1970, the arms embargo …

Could you also write one to Good Energy. They are dragging their heels on this. They also insist on sending out half a tree of promotional guff with every bill.

Here's an email I've just written to Wiltshire County Council:

Hi, I've just received my council tax bill, and I wondered if there was a paperless billing option? Eg. the bill could be emailed out, and the accompanying booklet could be online.

as ever, I'll let you know what they …

I came home to find my polling card for the referendum on changing the voting system for parliament from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote. My preferred voting system is range voting. As I wrote on Polifesto, the problem with AV:

...occurs when you have two popular candidates with extreme opposite …