06Aug04 — 3

That Question Again

Yesterday at noon I was packing my bag in a hotel room, booked in advance over the Web, when the television turned itself on and told me that it was time for me to check out. A taxi with GPS picked me up and took me to Glasgow airport. There I waited for a ticketless flight that I had also booked over the Web. After I arrived, I browsed my Weblog on my mobile phone in an airport lounge and read a comment posted there by a friend in the Philippines. Then I rang a freephone number to connect to a more reasonably priced international phone service provider so that I could catch up with another friend in Israel, who told me about the latest terrorist scare at Heathrow airport. In return, I shared with her my gossip about some of her former colleagues at an Israeli research institute who had been attending the same international conference I had just left.

All that computer and communications technology is amazing, but if I had had my personal anti-grav transport by now I wouldn’t have had to deal with the flight being delayed by two-and-half-hours. It’s 2004. It’s four years overdue. Where is my flying car?

05Aug04 — 3

House Of Pain

It’s not big and it’s not clever, but it’s a measure of how grim things are for the Conservative party that Labour can get away with a gimmick like this. Bet the Democrats wish they had such a divided opposition to deal with. [Free registration required; contains parochial British politics that may render overseas readers unconscious.]

04Aug04 — 8

A PooterGeek Poll?

What’s more annoying: the one-sentence-per-paragraph formatting of this story or its poor-me, whining celebrity content?

Beauty is a curse: Halle Berry

Halle Berry. She was the first African-American to represent America at the Miss World pageant.

She has won enough beauty titles to last a lifetime.

And she has an Oscar (Monster’s Ball) to her credit.

But Halle Berry would happily give up her beauty!

People magazine reports the Catwoman saying, ‘Let me tell you something — being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.’

Halle is one of Hollywood’s most well-dressed and stylish women. She has also acted in films like Catwoman and Die Another Day which show off her elegant body.

Halle also came strongly down on the human obsession with youth.

‘Personally, I’m really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that,’ she said. ‘There is this plastic, copycat look evolving and that’s frightening to me. It’s really insane and I feel sad that’s what society is doing to women.’

29Jul04 — 0

Next!

The Internet Movie Database's Fresh Faces is a showcase for less well-known actors and a monument to American dentistry. You can play casting director and flip through the talent ruthlessly, ticking or crossing the potential of the hopefuls on the basis of their (no-doubt Photoshopped) publicity photos alone. Whether you are male or female; straight, gay, or space-alien; there are tens of beautiful wannabes for you to gawp at. It's addictive. And Anita Matthys is stunning.

(While I was browsing this or some other crappy celebrity site yesterday evening, one of those “featured personals” adverts popped up at the side of the page. Beneath a photo of a tattooed young woman was her list of the five items she couldn't live without. The first was “Ritilin”. Call me Mister Fussypants, but when I'm dating a woman who's being treated with psychotropic drugs for her mental problems, I like her to be able to spell her medication.)

28Jul04 — 5

Bitchin'

Over at Who Knew?, Jeremy Brown commented as-it-happened on (Hillary's introduction and) Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic convention. He did it with the kind of wicked mockery that friends and sympathisers specialise in:

“[Clinton is striking the right tone, somewhere between that stadium enthusiasm and the sound of an actual human speaking as if off-the-cuff. He hasn’t said anything of actual meaning yet. I’ll let you know when he does]”

“The man should have been a diplomat, a preacher, or perhaps a traveling spokesman for Transcendental Meditation or Insurance. He is also the living embodiment of the fact that public speaking, though it’s a good start, just ain’t leadership.”

(If I ever do go into politics, I expect my dad's 'Blog will be full of stuff like that.)

28Jul04 — 0

Lingo

Yesterday I stumbled upon a 'Blog that was news to me, but I think I'll be watching from now on. According to its URL, “Language Log” is broadcasting from the University of Pennsylvania and seems to be staffed by linguistics profs from other top US universities. Stories that caught my eye include one on the popularization of the International Phonetic Alphabet by marketing gonks, one about Clinton's censorship of his own book for the British market, one linking to an attack on Slate's “Kerryism of the Day” feature and a defence of a non-moonbat anti-war campaigner, and a close analysis of the meaning and derivation of the phrase “could care less”. I didn't have the time to check thoroughly that that the content wasn't bollocks, but it's certainly intriguing. If you're interested in language it's a Web page you might want to avoid for fear of being sucked into endless browsing.

27Jul04 — 3

Never Say Never Again

So I agreed in the end. They renewed my licence to kill; I loaded my PPK; I strapped on the chronograph with its plutonium-powered homing device; I got back into the Aston Martin; and I went into action. I asked for Clooney, Connery, and Berry as co-stars. What did they send me? A bunch of Cambridge dons.

picture of Damian and Pembroke dons dressed for a ball

[photo of Pembroke College June Event received from the Anonymous Economist today—click to enlarge]

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