Hi, I’m on the set of Meet The Underwater Smoking Tanngoliabees with director, Hiram Czeapli. Hiram, there’s already a tremendous buzz about this star-studded, sprawling ensemble piece. Perhaps you could tell us why this of all your works has attracted so much pre-release media attention. Well, although The Smoking Tanngoliabees has a lot in common […]
Read MoreThe last couple of days’ entries have been so full of typos that readers have actually been emailing in corrections. Thank you to Hak Mao and casualsavant for spotting some of them and my dad for having the restraint to let me correct most of them before getting out his red marking pen online.
Read MoreFrom “The Tragedy of David Blunkett” in today’s Economist: “the British have lost their primness about sex, but they still hate a queue-jumper” Whatever you think of his policies, you have to feel something for the poor man. If you were choosing how your career was to end would you prefer it being: supported to […]
Read MoreAll my numbers have dropped lately because I have been posting less frequently and I know my US reader numbers have been in particular decline, but, for those of you still left, the topic for discussion today is: Hillary Clinton—could she really be the next president of the United States of America?
Read MoreYes, it’s bad there, but what about North Korea? Yes, he’s an evil dictator, but the Americans will be even worse. Yes, they’ll overthrow him, but what about the humanitarian disaster that will inevitably follow? Yes, democracy’s all very well in theory, but those people aren’t ready for it yet. Yes, they chopped off his […]
Read MoreIt takes a professional philosopher to choose, of all the arguments for the existence of some kind of god, the most exquisitely wrong: “A philosophy professor who has been a leading proponent of atheism for more than 50 years has decided that God may exist after all. “Antony Flew, 81, now believes scientific evidence supports […]
Read MoreThe nerds at Slashdot have been discussing the book Mathematics and Sex by Australian mathematician Clio Cresswell. She was once voted one of the 25 most beautiful people in Australia. For a mathematician she’s pretty fine [large jpg], but for a cookery writer she’s no great shakes. Amongst other gems, the book applies insights gained […]
Read MoreI am pulling out of the Genome Campus when I notice the car in front of me has a registration which is just a couple of characters away from spelling out “deontic”. First I think, “A near miss like that’s a bit of a shame.” Then I think, “Yeah, but what is the size of […]
Read MoreAlso from Slashdot I note that the planned advertisements for the superb open source Firefox Web browser have appeared. The ads depict the Firefox logo, a giant fox encircling the globe. This monster is the combined result of Tony Blair’s ban on hunting with dogs and his authorization of the release of GM organisms into […]
Read MoreRecently I expressed some concern at the look of the new film adaptations of the Earthsea novels by Ursula Le Guin. She’s not a happy bunny either, as she explains at Slate, under the title “Whitewashed: Earthsea How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books“.
Read MoreHave you got any hardcore? Y’know: Naomi Does Najaf? No, sir. Maybe some stuff with, er, children? Like the Pilger one in the paediatrics wards or that Moore one with the kids flying kites? I’m afraid not. I bet you like a bit of amateur, though, dontcha? You must have “The Best of After Hours […]
Read MoreSorry for the thin posting here lately. I have a lot of music-making and Christmas socializing going on. As if to shame me, a PooterGeeker I’ve never met before read my Amazon wishlist [over there ->], noticed that one of the books on it was no longer available to buy new, and sent me an […]
Read MoreI long for the day when there is no longer any hiding place for the bastards—instead of a vast system of “international” “law” to shelter their fiefdoms from reason, liberty, mercy, fairness, and universal suffrage. In the meantime, let’s raise a glass to the continued imprisonment of these guys [do you think their “snacks” include […]
Read MoreIt was confirmed yesterday that the recent striking changes in the appearance of Tony Blair are indeed the result of poisoning. Sources close to Mr Blair have suggested that the poison may have been administered during a dinner with Prime Minister-elect Gordon Brown at the north London restaurant Granita. Tony Blair, before and after
Read MoreRinging people from your mobile on public transport to tell them “I’m on the train” is so nineties. Now you email people and tell them “I’m on my mobile”. Thank you, Anthony. I’m on my Linux box. You’re back on the ‘Blogroll.
Read MoreAs if to prove that not everything about post-modernism is bad, I have stumbled upon something that all but defines the term as applied to the arts. I sincerely hope that you have Java on your computer so that you too can experience Pac Mondrian. [For those of you who haven’t got Java installed you […]
Read MoreIt’s a shame that casualsavant didn’t send me The Metrosexual Guide sooner. The chapter on sex in particular has been a revelation. I understand now, for example, where I went wrong with that Canadian girl who told me she was “really into” Ralph Fiennes: “Uniforms and situations involving authority figures can be fun, though it’s […]
Read MoreI discovered this week that a man for whom I have immense professional admiration possesses a comb-over of apocalyptic awfulness. It is not so much a hairstyle as a standing test of his subordinates’ loyalty; an oxbow lake of glossy, hypnotising vanity skirting the rear of his polished head as if in mocking apposition to […]
Read MoreOn Tuesday, Harry Hutton of “Chase Me Ladies“‘s Killer Fact was that “P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler had the same English teacher.” I suspect my dad might have had the at least two ring leaders of future military coups in different West African states study under him, but it’d take some doing to compete with […]
Read MoreYvette Cooper—who used to live next door to me at Balliol—was responsible for a government campaign to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. According to the statistics collected, its effect seemed to be to make things ever-so-slightly worse and then ever-so-slightly better. These days there’s a whiff of desperation about the issue. Today I discover […]
Read MoreI had dinner this evening with a nice Filipina post-doc yeast geneticist who, like all of her countrywomen when newly arrived in a location beyond their islands, was carrying something on behalf of another Filipina, in this case a gift from casualsavant for me. Now that I have a copy of The Metrosexual Guide To […]
Read MoreEric The Unread has taken Backword Dave‘s Jedi morality/foreign policy post and run with it. If you are familiar with the Star Wars films you’ll have a good laugh.
Read MoreA reliable source of cheap laughs here is the sometimes daft electronic media output of the Labour Party machine. I joke about it as only a fully paid up member can. Today, just for a change, I wandered over the the Conservative Party Website to kick the horse while it’s down. It’s so easy I […]
Read MoreEven when disagreeing with me, anti-war Backword Dave has always shown commendable respect for the moral basis of my pro-war Leftie stance. Yesterday, however, he cited the words of Yoda, a Muppet no less, in criticizing Tony Blair’s foreign policy. If Tony reads it he’ll probably have to resign.
Read MoreI am a hypothetical man with an even more hypothetical woman. She doesn’t enjoy having sex with me. Chance that this is because:- I never listen to anything she says: 16 percent The only thing about me that ever turned her on was my after-tax income: 13 percent I am too heavy-handed: 7 percent I am too light-fingered: 8 percent I am […]
Read MoreBefore anyone gets the wrong idea, I called David Blunkett “Herr Blunkett” last week because I had been having lunch with a German friend who complimented the British on their relatively relaxed attitude to rules. No one has done so yet, but there’s no need to invoke Godwin’s law. I don’t admire Blunkett’s fondness for […]
Read MoreI have a nice handbuilt touring bike. When I bought it nearly ten years ago with a tax rebate, I paid more for it (even in absolute cash terms) than the car I now drive. Unlike my car, it has probably paid for itself, mainly by getting me around London for several years, when I […]
Read MoreScience fiction nerds might remember Umpty Candy, the confection that tasted so good its sale had to be prohibited and inventor blasted into space where the secret recipe inside his head could no longer be accessed. You probably know that I cannot speak of “organic” foods or “Fairtrade” products without a pair of sneer quotes […]
Read MoreDo you think any of these Arab writers stand a chance of getting a regular gig at The Guardian? [Thanks to Judith.]
Read More
Recent Comments