Category Archives: Life
SHOOT AN’ CRY: Stars Earn Stripes earns a place in television hell
Remember the Nineties? When “cutting edge” producers wrestled with the idea of a dystopian future made up of a glutted techno-consumption culture that couldn’t stop itself from eating, hacking and shitting, and TV shows fronted by army generals who bet … Continue reading
MEDITATING ON THE RECESSION
Are you unemployed? Skint? Considering New Age solutions to your problems? You might just have the 2008 Financial Crash Blues: and you’re not alone. Fearghus Roulston finds the new spiritual side of the recession in Manchester. Buddhism isn’t something readily … Continue reading
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Tagged 2008 Financial Crash, Manchester, meditation, New Age, recession
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THE IAN TOMLINSON CASE IS MORE THAN JUST AN OLYMPIC PRESS COUP
With the Olympics only one week away, you can’t blame people for getting cagey. Like headmasters on sports day, David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt, the Met and the security services are doing their best to hide the day-to-day from visitors’ … Continue reading
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Christopher Nolan’s Batman remembers 9/11 better than most
When a prep school boy sings the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ on an American football field, he could be singing it for Iraq veterans and 9/11 families at the Super Bowl. But we know the stadium’s about to get blown away … Continue reading
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Tagged Batman, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, Frank Miller, Gotham City
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“TAKE OFF YOUR LOONY GOGGLES…”: Substance versus The Commentator on anti-Semitism at the BBC
[View the story "\"Take off your loony goggles...\"" on Storify]
THE CYBER-CRIMINAL FROM BOLSOVER: Richard O’Dwyer, cyber-crime and everybody else who’s doing it
When Sheffield Hallam student Richard O’Dwyer set up TVShack.com I don’t imagine he ever thought about getting caught. Nobody does on the Internet. Back in the post-Napster days of WinMX and Limewire – when I was about 14 – my … Continue reading
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Tagged Change.org, extradition, Internet, Jimmy Wales, Richard O'Dwyer, TVShack, US justice
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OUR LABOUR IS THE NEW LABOUR
Sedgefield has always had a special place in the history of the Labour movement. The constituency cuts into County Durham, the mining – and by extension – Labour heartland of the north east. Ex-mining village Trimdon isn’t far away, the … Continue reading
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Tagged All the pits have closed, County Durham, Ed Miliband, Labour, Phil Brown MP, Sheffield Doc/Fest
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WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING
Let this be a warning: we all know what you’re doing. How you ask? Thanks to a new website of the same name, the evil genius of web developer Callum Haywood. We Know What You’re Doing collates trends of publicly … Continue reading
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Tagged Callum Haywood, Facebook, technology, We Know What You're Doing, web privacy
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This is the week that was: 20/6
This is the week that was. It’s our midweek politics round-up for the liberal, the left-leaning and the lazy. Check out the blog and our Twitter @Substance_mag for all of the week’s stories every Wednesday. One-liners at the Treasury Q: … Continue reading
ISRAEL HAS PLENTY OF PREJUDICED CRITICS, BUT THE BBC ISN’T ONE
Right-wingers love to bash the Beeb. Because it’s a public company it’s guilty of tax evasion, because it aims to be impartial it’s a missive for liberal/left-wing bias. For these reasons combined, the BBC has earned itself the reputation of … Continue reading →