Damian

Holy Fucking Hell. What Next?

I should introduce this one by pointing out that, a couple of years ago, having read an excellent article of Prof. Jardine’s about a piece of science history that interested me, I contacted her to ask if she would be interested in working with me on something related. She might not have received my email, […]

Read More

The Undoing of Dean

Claire joins in Judith in the Democrat-bashing by pointing me at this Christopher Hitchens piece in Opinion Journal about Howard Dean. From the quotes and reports I’ve read so far I have to admit I don’t feel any wish to defend the faltering ex-frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Read More

Mystorian/Historian

Susan Carruthers, associate professor of history, Rutgers University, New Jersey, US, writes in the Times Higher Educational Supplement [Website down 08:30] about three books on contemporary international affairs. Her contribution to the 30Jan04 edition [not free online] should be given to students as an example of how to smother reason with fashionable polysyllabic flannel. Here […]

Read More

Rockchicks Don’t Wear Plaid

To the rest of us it’s a nipple ring, worthy of flippant comment; to Andrew Guy Jnr. of the Houston Chronicle it’s a matter for an on-the-spot report that reads like a Raymond Chandler pastiche. It’s funny. But not for the reasons he hoped.

Read More

Apology of the Day

From the honest, accurate and impartial Al-Jazeera: “Correction: An earlier version of this article said John Kerry had admitted taking part in the inadvertent slaughter of Vietnamese civilians. We would like to make clear this admission was made by Senator Bob Kerrey.” (via Fark).

Read More

Yet More Israeli Craziness

I’m a bit late to this story, I know, but I’m on an “Israeli surreality” roll now, so don’t stop me. He used to be a terrorist, now he’s a “Palestinian Zionist”, but “Walid Shoebat” is the sort of name that only the CIA could devise. It’s a fundamentalist Christian plot, I tell ya.

Read More

“…And Promote World Peace”

As part of my “bonkers news from Israel” season I give you the naked settler midriffs of Miss Samaria 2004. Rabbi Daniel Shiloh, spokesman for the Committee of Rabbis in Judea and Samaria, the religious designation for the West Bank, said in an interview before the pageant. “It starts with beauty contests and ends with […]

Read More

Odds and Sods

I’ve been flitting about posh, but un-networked, corners of London again so I’ve not had a chance to post so far this weekend. At a party in Highgate yesterday, I spent some time railing against this kind of educational hypocrisy and was told by two of the nice, privileged, middle-class guests to “lighten up”. Leftie […]

Read More

Neighbours from Hell

In the Looking Glass world of Israeli politics, war criminal and chronic embarrassment to right-thinking Israelis Ariel Sharon gets it in the neck for doing the right thing. If he ever manages to implement his plan to move these other embarrassments to right-thinking Israelis someone will, of course, shoot him dead—and graduate from assassin school […]

Read More

Geeks Don’t Iron

Thanks to Maoi and the Cambridge University Filipino Students’ Society (don’t ask) for a tip-off to this story about how to get a paper in PNAS (a highly respected scientific journal—and I’m not being sarcastic for a change) by mathematically modelling the folding of fabrics. Incidentally, Maoi, I’ve just been to see Lost in Translation […]

Read More

Russian Dolls?

A while ago I wrote about Bratz dolls in a flippant way. It seems I didn’t take the subject as seriously as it deserved. Charles Laurence in the Sunday Telegraph has been reflecting on the usurping of Barbie by the Bratz: In toy terms, this is an upheaval on the same scale as the fall […]

Read More

Compare and Contrast

You thought Andrew Gilligan was in denial: Some of my story was wrong, as I admitted at the inquiry, and I again apologise for it… …But the BBC collectively has been the victim of a grave injustice. , but there’s always a French politician to put things in proportion. According to the BBC: Juppé said […]

Read More

Man of Mystery

The Sun promises us a Web chat with celebrity hypnotist Paul McKenna and invites us to send in our questions. Here’s mine: “Apparently you can give women orgasms by snapping your fingers and it’s safe to say you aren’t short of a bob or two, so why do you find it necessary to comb thin […]

Read More

Addressing Weighty Matters

I completed the first part of an excellent course in presentation skills today and had the odd experience of seeing myself on film. Either it’s true that the camera puts 10 pounds on you or it’s time I went on a diet. If cameras do put weight on you, God help Calista Flockhart and Courtney […]

Read More
Newer Posts
Older Posts