The weird parallel world of Conservapaedia

Conservapaedia is a bit disappointing, really:you'd have hoped they could have put some effort into their political skewing of the facts (who was it said, a pro pos of Iraq, that "The facts on the ground have an anti-Bush agenda?") Nonetheless, their 'broadcasting' page is a source of unintentional comedy.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Category:Broadcasting

I can't decide whether my favourite bit is their castigating of the BBC for (among other things, including, naturally, and anti-conservative and anti-Christian agenda) their scandalous neglect of the Scots; the unnamed Doctor Who episode that was an allegory for the entry of Britain into the Common Market, and the Guardian's denouncing 'Daleks in Manhattan' as the BBC 'relentlessly spewing out Socialist propaganda' (and here I thought that was right up the Grauniad's street); the puzzling fact that Crossroads is one of the few TV programmes that merits an entry; the attack on Angel for Pelagianism (only they don't seem to know the word); the odd entry on Star Trek which devotes most of its interest to arguing that the programme pushes the 'ancient astronaut' theory of life (which, IIRC, only featured in something like two episodes of TNG)

Generally, though, one is left with the impression that they haven't actually watched any of the things they're writing about, as can be seen in what is surely the crappest summary ever of Life on Mars: the entry in its entirety reads

Life on Mars is a British sitcom based in Manchester, England. It follows the exploitations of a man, Sam Tyler, who thinks he is from the past. There is some controversy surrounding the naming of the secondary lead character, Gene Hunt. He is not in fact a genealogist researcher. He is in fact a Police Officer.

ETA: Oh, for goodness sake. This is the entry for "material."

The material world is that which we observe physically surrounding ourselves.
While very important in terms of keeping ourselves alive through the production of food, shelter, etc., it is a diversion from the spiritual task we are concerned with as seekers and believers in a higher plane. It is true that we must meet our material needs in order to live in God, but it is more importantly true that we must shy away from material aggrandizement in order to stay pure in our pursuit of the Word.
I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or denounce them as heretics....

Children's Fiction Meme

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Carnegie and Newbery Prize winners, bolded where I've read them:

I note that in the first years of the Carnegie they seem to be giving 'lifetime achievement' awards: Ransome, Streatfield, and Lewis' awards are not for their best (children's) books. I also note that I've read quite a lot of author's books other than the prize winning ones, possibly because I have long distrusted the 'worthy' book.

2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury Children's Books
2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury Children's Books
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Doubleday Not his best children's book either, but good nonetheless.
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin
1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards From No Man's Land, Bodley Head
1998 David Almond, Skellig, Hodder Children's Books I think. I don't remember much about it.
1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy, OUP
1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk, Andersen Press Half: I read a few chapters and gave up. Both 'worthy' and trying to be shocking and down wit' de kids - not a good mix.
1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights, Scholastic A worthy winner in its year, for all that Pullman annoys me, but I don't for an instant believe it deserves the 'Carnegie of Carnegies'.
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard, Methuen
1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold, H Hamilton
1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies, H Hamilton An amusing book, but not her best. Apparently teen pregnancies was how to win the Carnegie in the early nineties...
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody, H Hamilton Well, I suppose there are many less tiresome books about teen pregnancy.
1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf, OUP
1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes, H Hamilton
1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies, OUP
1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum, Faber
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl, Methuen
1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, Heinemann
1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover, Dent I remember being quite creeped out by this book, particularly as for me Mahy was the author of wonderfully mad, funny books like Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles and The Blood and Thunder Adventure of Hurricane Peak, not so much of supernatural thrillers. It's very good, though.
1983 Jan Mark, Handles, Kestrel I've read a lot of Marks, but again, not this one.
1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting, Dent
1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows, Chatto & Windus I must say I prefered Blitzcat.
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold, Gollancz Not one of the Dickinsons I've read.
1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku, Gollancz
1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz, H Hamilton
1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, Faber Genius. One of the earliest 'unreliable narrator' stories I remember, incidentally
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings, Kestrel
1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, Macmillan
1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold, H Hamilton
1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Heinemann
1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down, Rex Collings
1971 Ivan Southall, Josh, Angus & Robertson
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea, Longman
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud, OUP
1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud, Faber
1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service, Collins Not as good as Elidor, but it still gave me nightmares
1966 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force, OUP
1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank, OUP
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial, OUP
1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii, Faber
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe, Faber
1960 Dr I W Cornwall, The Making of Man, Phoenix House
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers, OUP Wonderful, though arguably The Eagle of the Ninth is better. Still, a very deserved winner.
1958 Philipa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, OUP Apparently the Carnegie of Carnegie runner up. It's an excellent book, but I think I'd have gone for Watership Down, The Lantern Bearers, The Last Battle or even The Owl Service before it.
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope, OUP
1956 C S Lewis, The Last Battle, Bodley Head I suspect this is one of the 'for services to literature' category. Horse and his Boy, Dawn Treader and Silver Chair are all better.
1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, OUP
1954 Ronald Welch (Felton Ronald Oliver), Knight Crusader, OUP I adore Ronald Welch's historicals, but I've never met anyone but me who appreciated them. The history's pretty good, too.
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Dent I never really liked the Borrowers, and I've never been sure why not.
1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack, Methuen
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing, OUP
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home, Faber
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change, Dent
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse, University of London Press
1945 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon, Macmillan
1943 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1942 'BB' (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men, Eyre & Spottiswoode Hurrah for BB!
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Cape
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London, Dent
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman, Heinemann I'm assuming this one is a bio of Marie Curie...
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming, Dent Never heard of this one, though I read all the Streatfeilds I could get my hands on
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, Muller
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, Cape It's not his greatest book, but a middle rater from Ransome is worth two of most people's best. He's such a good prose stylist, as well as having a firm grasp of character, setting and plot. I wish I could write a quarter as well.


Newbery Medal
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry(Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton) A very interesting tale, though I must admit I'd not swap it for Anastasia
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

I am clearly a product of the British publishing industry (though not solely of British authors). On the other hand, I'm surprised at some of the people who haven't won the Carnegie - Joan Aiken and Kathleen Fidler being among the most obvious examples (though I suspect KF may have gone beneath the radar as too Scottish...)