WoSblog apologises for any inconvenience caused to would-be viewers this afternoon, when for several hours visitors to the site were confronted with the image below.

The blog's suspension for much of yesterday was the result of yet another desperate attempt by Olin Coles, the in-no-way brainless and cowardly owner of the discredited "review" site Benchmark Reviews, to suppress the evidence of his site's not-at-all dishonest practices.

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Ooh, this gets better and better. Viewers who've been following the thrilling story as it develops will recall the eerie similarity between the content of the Benchmarks Review feature on the Herman Miller Embody chair, and the advertising blurb for it on the site of retailer Smart Furniture.

We were a little curious about this, bearing in mind site owner Olin Coles' strident assertion that, apart from the belatedly-acknowledged passages copied from Herman Miller's press release, "the remaining 99.9% of the article is a fully independent review of a self-purchased product."

(Actually it's the remaining 93.6%, but let's not quibble.)

So inestimable Friend Of WoSblog John X dropped Smart Furniture a line.

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Wow. I got home from a poker game in the early hours of this morning, and idly wondered if busted shill/"executive editor" Olin Coles might have replied to my polite request for his side of the story with regard to his hopelessly dishonest excuse for a website. What I found was that Mr Coles had instead chosen to post on the Benchmark Reviews forum, in a thread entitled "Forever banned: Hall of Shame". The thread describes itself thus:

"Like any writer, our work comes under fire from time to time. Most of the criticism is taken to heart and used to improve future work, but occasionally the critic can go overboard and begin making personal threats and accusations. This thread is intended to show our visitors that their accusations and threats do not remain anonymous."

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Can be found here.

I wouldn't call myself a fan of the Daily Telegraph by some way, but I've never seen it sink quite this low. And I speak as someone who doesn't give a donkey's danglers about global warming.

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1. Delete AppSniper.

That's saved you the first 50 hours of failure, at least.

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Point 1: Kaka clearly, obviously, makes an active short jabbing motion with his elbow towards Keita's chest.

Watch the video by clicking the pic above and then clicking the "RED CARD" clip, particularly from 0.36 to 0.38. Watch Kaka's arm. I think the mistake people have been making so far is to watch the footage with their eyes closed and their brains replaced with a turnip.

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I haven't been to bed yet. I may be cranky. But with over 90% of results in, it's not really possible to draw any conclusions from last night's election other than (a) almost everyone in Britain is a pathetic, brainless cretin, and (b) everything about our "democracy" is a sick black joke at our expense.

Let's take it step by step, shall we?

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On the face of it, it's a time for national rejoicing. After just 13 years in government, Gordon Brown has suddenly apparently discovered the secret of 100% employment – state jobs for all.

New Labour's latest attack on the voiceless poor is the stunning assertion that after 30 years of millions-long dole queues, it seems there was no need for anyone to be unemployed at all.

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The last bastion of global freedom was put in chains last night. Now, on a whim, a government minister elected by no-one can legally shut down absolutely any site on the internet, indefinitely, on the mere suspicion that it might, in the future, infringe someone's copyright, or in some way inadvertently assist some third party in the breaking of some other law. 

Of course, these powers will be used only sparingly and with the most careful and wise consideration. No further democratic scrutiny is or will be required. Authority has been wholly established.

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Or at least, apparently now it will if you tell it to. I got the most extraordinary email today. I'd been watching Breakfast news a few days ago, and was startled to hear one of the newsreaders assert, as part of a report on the progress of the Digital Economy Bill, that "music piracy costs the music industry hundreds of millions of pounds a year".

Since there has, of course, never been a single shred of evidence produced anywhere by anyone ever proving that this is the case, I was somewhat disturbed to hear the BBC suddenly reporting this claim as an absolute fact, without any sort of "the industry claims that…" qualifier in front of it. So I sent off an email via the BBC website politely expressing my concerns.

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