FYI Site stealing blog entries

I discovered today that the site allconsuming.net is copying and publishing entries from peoples blogs to promote sales of books. Basically if you write an entry that mentions a book they copy the entry and publish it on a page that offers the book for sale via Amazon Associates (so they get a cut of the profits). They don't ask permission and, as they publish entire entries, are not covered by fair use. that means they're in breach of international copyright law. It might be worth checking if they've nicked anything of your's, easiest way would be to Google with "site:allconsuming.net [your journal name]".

Contact address is erik@allconsuming.net. The whois record is here.

Permission is explicitly granted to reproduce this entry so long as it is done in it's entirety and a link back to the original is included.

For my UK friends and readers

I thought it might be interesting to remind everyone that now would be a very good time to FAX your MP if you have anything you want to bring to their attention. An election being on the cards and all.

Redlake Killer teen kept blogs

Apparently the 16 year old who shot up his school in Redlake, killing himself and 9 others, was user of LiveJournal, weise, and at least one other blog site. Maybe there was more detail in friends only or personal entries (functionally equivalent as he has no friends listed) but the few pubic entries in there look like typical teen angst.

[I found this via a post to abovetopsecret by theta_wave]

School dinners

According to Sunday's Sunday Times, following on from the TV series "Jamie's School Dinners", the average amount spent by a school on the lunches they provide to their pupils is 37p a day. The average amount collected from parents (or claimed from LEA for free school meals where children qualify), however, according to the article and confirmed by some phone calls to parents of school aged children I know is around £1.75-2 per pupil per day. Where's the rest of the cash going? Even if the 37p is purely for the food delivered to the door I find it impossible to believe that they are spending £1.38 per pupil per day on reheating the food, serving it up and washing the utensils afterwards. I know how little those kitchen assistants and lunch supervisors earn, it's a pittance (I know people who work in school kitchens and lunch rooms). I'd be surprised if it cost more than the 38p, so that's a quid, at least, going astray for each pupil each day