January 2004

07Jan04 — 0

Quote for the Day

I am currently alternating between two of my Christmas books as bedtime reading: What Philosophers Think, edited by Julian Baggini and Jeremy Stangroom, and Francis Spufford’s Backroom Boys. The latter is a polished crystal of popular science writing. Spufford describes technological phenomena in a concrete, evocative way (“smaller engines filled the air with the sound […]

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06Jan04 — 0

Ethan Rising

Yesterday Judith emailed in reply to my post about the doll called Eitan. She said she had the impression that the English equivalent of “Eitan”, “Ethan”, was becoming a more and more popular boys’ name. She’s right. Also yesterday, by coincidence, The Office of National Statistics published the latest report on the most popular boys‘ […]

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05Jan04 — 0

Missing Alynzia

I hadn’t heard from Alynzia for months (since her last comment on PooterGeek in fact) so I went looking for her online and found that her Website has disappeared. Let us know you’re still alive, Ms Newton! And do you have anything to do with TheAristotleEngine?

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05Jan04 — 0

Shake A Tailfeather

Jo pointed out to me today that, if you hurry over to visit the homepage of the International Conference on Animal Genetics 2004 (to be held in Tokyo) you will see a photograph of the longest cock on the Web.

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05Jan04 — 0

Own Worst Critic

On the basis of an article I’d written, I was asked to contribute to a book today. This sounds impressive until I add that I had never heard of the publisher. Checking out their list, I followed up the name of one of their authors who had written some computational biology stuff for them. He […]

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04Jan04 — 0

I Believe

Last week Michael Howard laid out his philosophy as Tory leader in a public declaration of 16 beliefs. I dislike and disagree with him, but he came in for a thoroughly undeserved kicking for his statement. Cambridge’s very own Chris Lightfoot half-defended him from the press, now I’ll half-defend Howard too. The Conservative leader’s credo […]

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04Jan04 — 0

In Other News

The latest message from the Osama Bin Laden Soundalike Society was top of the BBC’s headlines in all the evening news bulletins. Meanwhile, Claire alerted me to yet another horrifying development in Afghanistan. As I always say, it’s in the interests of both sides of the War on Terror to live in the parallel dimension […]

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04Jan04 — 0

Baby/Doll

Yesterday ‘Blogging superstar Glenn Reynolds was reviewing girls’ boy-dolls on his Instapundit Weblog. His point was that a “Flava” doll called “Liam” is selling poorly because it’s too girly, but he is positive about the male Bratz—apparently his own daughter is a fan. (And I have to say that I think the music loops on […]

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04Jan04 — 0

A Little Miracle

As I have ranted about before, Radio 1 is a post-apocalyptic media wasteland, where Smashie and Nicey rule, albeit reincarnated as a single DJ, the intellectually challenged pub bore Chris Moyles. In the late 80s the S’n’N satirical duo characterized Radio 1 as an out-of-touch musical outlet, trapped in a loop of mid-Atlantic soft rock. […]

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