IPCentral's weblog comes second only to my Fox News op-ed feed for the "irritatingly bad journalism" award. I try to read things I know I'll disagree with, not least because really bad articles make me reflect on whether I overlook similar problems amongst writers I happen to agree with. But then I read nonsense like the free software market is a forking mess, or walking to local shops damages planet more than driving by car and really despair.

I suppose the second article is a sign of progress, the Green movement is high profile enough to attract continuous cheap shots from morons who get into papers like The Times (London).

The walking/driving claim is part of a trend given unwelcome oxygen by the Freakonomics book. I quite enjoyed the book, it's useful to apply broad statistical analysis to trends and cast doubt over intuitive truths. But then there's just bad analysis and interpretation.

Does it make more sense to drive to local shops? Sure, if you eat intensively farmed and processed beef to give you the calories for a walk to the shop, and if in the driving scenario you don't do any exercise and so suffer all sorts of health problems. A better conclusion from the comparison is that our food chain has become far too energy intensive, and that we need to analyse the environmental and social impacts of all our activities holistically. A vegan walking to buy local, seasonal organic vegetables would score far better than the meat-eating car driver who goes to the local gym. Forget catchy headlines and the latest big tip in the media. You're better off considering your own ecological footprint and finding your own way to reduce it to a sustainable level, then taking political action where the shared infrastructure push yours up or obstruct effective personal action.

Back to IPCentral, is the free software world turning into a forking mess, nightmare for businesses and home users? Well first of all it isn't, no, the "upwards of 300 Linux distributions" are about as useful an indication as listing the number of pubs in London and concluding that there are too many for residents of one particular urban village. Relevant questions would be: how many high profile distributions are there for business desktops, how much do they cost, are they supported and are they compatible? That leads you to some interesting discussion about the state of free software, rather than a silly wager about the supremacy of "profit motive [versus] religious fanaticism".

Reading the news can be a bit like arguing with a bright 18 year-old. You're confronted by a smart arse who doesn't actually know what they're talking about, but who enjoys provocative remarks that hang on the slightest thread of logic.