Tom Hamilton complains about being spammed by Naomi Klein’s people, looking for publicity for her latest volume of designer politics. (Exactly as I didn’t with Peter Cook’s book back here, I am going to divine without reading it that Klein’s book will be rubbish.) From Tom’s comments, it seems, they also pestered Tim Worstall, Mr Eugenides, and […]
Read MoreI had always assumed that there was some connection between the Cusack families either side of the Atlantic, but there ain’t. The actor and screenwriter Richard Cusack is father of John, Joan, Ann, Susie and Bill. Actor Cyril Cusack is father of Paul, Sorcha, Niamh, Pádraig, and Catherine. Sinead Cusack is married to Jeremy Irons […]
Read MoreHere are some sensible tips on how to send an email message.
Read MoreWhen I tore open the plastic envelope containing my latest copy of The Economist there was a flyer inside advertising Felix Dennis‘s How To Get Rich: The Distilled Wisdom Of One Of Britain’s Wealthiest Self-Made Entrepreneurs. If you phone the number printed on it then he’ll send you a copy of the new paperback edition […]
Read MoreSorry about the silence. I’ve been working hard in Portugal and working hard here. Stevie Wonder says I look just like him in these shades My exact ethnic background isn’t immediately obvious from my appearance. Most Sierra Leoneans would call me “white”; most Brits wouldn’t. To a large fraction of the people on this planet […]
Read More“Gradually restores natural looking color to gray hair” It’s rambling, lying, conspiracist bollocks from a mass-murderer in a silly hat. He recommends Chomsky, the Kyoto Protocol, a universal flat tax, and an end to democracy. Someone give him a newspaper column. Whoops. Already been done. I’m not quoting the costumed cock here. You can search […]
Read MoreEven the Nazis didn’t put artists out of work. — Andrew Keen, author of The Cult Of The Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy, talking about the Internet, one minute into this interview The advantage of the Internet, as Keen reveals in the title of his book, is that, […]
Read MoreIt’s one in the morning. About fifteen minutes ago, I got back from working hard at a delightful wedding. Thanks to Jason Hare, I’ve just read this piece by Stephen King about the joys of junk culture and listened to Petra Haden’s uplifting and progressively sillier cover of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. I’m grinning like […]
Read MoreFurther to my post about remaindered books, Claire reminds me of Clive James’s poem on the subject.
Read MoreSorry to link to my Anastacia post again, but further to its attack on the current oppressive fashion of using limiters and compressors to increase the loudness of pop and rock recordings and my sideswipe here, Slashdot links to an(other) article about the “loudness war“. [If you are a newcomer to Slashdot you should take […]
Read MoreI’ve just been on the phone with The Tax Man and we had a discussion in which we used the phrase “the bottom line” to mean “the bottom line“. Self-employment is weird.
Read MoreWhile I’m away, you might want to read Let’s Be Sensible‘s “science” round-up and a couple of posts at Mr E’s place. This one is about a news story that highlights the absurdities of religious schools in England and Wales and this one is about the latest Conservative Party screw-up. When they do get rid of Cameron as […]
Read MoreLots on. Things to say, but no time to say them. Sorry.
Read MoreAn ex of mine in publishing used to hate my dragging her into remainder bookshops. She saw them as public archives of professional disasters. I love ’em—both because they’re full of cheap, odd books and because they are full of titles that nobody wants to buy. The question I ask about many of the latter […]
Read MoreUnlike, I suspect, most remaining readers of The Independent newspaper, I believe it’s to the credit of the people of the United States of America that one of the most common questions they ask of tour guides as they are shown around the Grand Canyon is: “How did we make it?” If the Martians are […]
Read MoreAnd this one’s for my dad, because I never thought I’d hear an American sports commentator on US TV say the words “probably all the way back to Preston North End”:
Read MoreI’m embedding this month-old YouTube video here because it’s better that you don’t see its title. That would spoil the clever pay-off.
Read More[SVEN-GÖRAN ERIKSSON’s BEDROOM. The former England coach lies cradled in one arm of NANCY DELL’OLIO. As she bends her face over his shiny pate, he adds another tick to his “To Do” list next to the words “have sex” and below the phrases “polish glasses” and “Portuguese lesson”.] SVEN: Nancy, my love-bagel, it iss now […]
Read MoreLast week I discovered JasonHare.com, a blog full of trivia about the sort of music that only kids in high street electrical shops will admit to liking. Hare is obsessed with 80s cheese and soft rock. There are eleven mulleted musos visible on the current front page alone. It’s brilliant.
Read MoreI just had a go at The Graun for an article about university admissions, but Chris correctly pointed out that I’d misread it, so I’ve removed the post. When I make a mistake here I always leave a record of it on the site so that’s the purpose of this entry.
Read MoreThis is another one I’m over a month late to, but it’s magical, just the sort of impossible cleverness that computer games could do with more of. Via plasticbag.org, to succeed playing Echocrome [Flash video demo] you have to accept the physics of Escherworld.
Read MoreNot having a telly, I didn’t catch the latest from Richard Dawkins, but when I visited his Website to look for clips, I saw this photo of him: All I could think of was Michael Mann directing Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in an atheist actioner: [A convertible Ferrari screams through downtown in slow motion, reflections […]
Read MoreOver the past couple of days of fairly intense work I have been excited every time I’ve checked in on the close race for the lead in the “Who’s the Messiah?” poll.
Read MoreEver found yourself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with something on career Conservative Iain Dale’s blog? Under a photo of Sierra Leoneans queuing to vote he writes: This is the picture that should shame 39% of British adults … Why is it that 39% of people in this country at the last general election […]
Read MoreFollowing on from Tim’s comment, according to BBC News online: More young people would take science degrees if they were given a financial incentive, claim industry experts. […but obviously we’d rather the government came up with this financial incentive while we continue to offer those with science degrees less than they are worth, and complain […]
Read MoreNo one reads blogs on sunny weekends so this is possibly the worst time to try this out, but, being an evil neocon, I have decided to install Democracy 2.0.1 here. Now you can express your feelings about the Things That Matter. Exercise your franchise, PooterGeekers: n Who is the Messiah? David Icke David Shayler […]
Read MoreBeachy Head[click image to enlarge it] I was eating breakfast in an hotel in Cambridge the Saturday morning after I shot that college ball. A tall, intense-looking man with a beard sat down at a table nearby. He pulled a hardback book out of his briefcase and began underlining paragraphs heavily with a soft pencil. […]
Read MoreAnd now, a real horror video. Remember the media storms about racism on UK Big Brother? Keep them in mind as you check out Amber, a Jewish contestant on the US version, complaining, without any hint of irony, to the only black contestant on the show about “selfish, money-hungry” Jews. You can spot them by […]
Read MoreThis has been online for so long and is so funny that it’s hard to believe that no one has sent me a link to it before. Perhaps this is because it’s a German health and safety video and, for the first minute or so, is exactly as entertaining as that description suggests. But it […]
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