May 2004

Instant India

The online Indian superstore, Memsaab, offers the complete Bollywood experience—“Ideal to create that Indian ambience in any home!”—in a box. For the giveaway price of £39.99 you too could be moving your head from side to side in time to the funky massed strings of the Transglobal Outsourcing Orchestra. According to their site, the contents […]

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Budding

Auriol emails to tell me her friend Rose George has a book out about asylum seekers. (I think) I’ve met Rose a couple of times and (if she is who I think she is) she’s bright and fun. Here’s the first part of something she did about what it’s like being a bus driver in […]

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Leaders Of The Pack

The dog genome is in. I should be ‘Blogging the potential benefits for genetic research of our being able to compare a whole collection of small, genetically isolated populations, but you want to read about the weirdness. It turns out that some pure breeds are ancient, close relatives of the wolf. This particular subgroup includes […]

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Magnifique!

Not having even seen Prague and Florence yet, I am hardly in a position to say that Paris is the most beautiful city in the World, but, if it isn’t, then I have some dazzling sights left to enjoy in my life. My goodness, the place lives up to the hype. If you know me, […]

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Old Lie/New Lie

Anti-scientific hysteria has “progressed” from people believing that autism is caused by uncaring mothers to their believing that it is caused by evil drug companies. Both beliefs have caused unnecessary suffering. Both beliefs are, of course, unfounded. [Still on Black Triangle stand-in duty…]

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40% Gay; 100% Normal

PooterGeek is in the top ten hits on Tiscali search for “circumcised gay models“* so I feel it’s my duty to bring you stories like this one. Question: where do gay people go when they become boring? Answer: Wilton Manors, Florida. “Gay marriage is not a lightning-rod issue here,” said Gary Resnick, one of three […]

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The Other Side of the Story

Last week I had another rant at John Humphrys‘ continued myth-telling. Ann Clwyd, Left-wing Labour MP and long-timer campaigner for human rights in Iraq was his interviewee during the item that provoked that outburst, and appeared on Today in her capacity as UK Human Rights Envoy to the country. Thanks to Harry’s Place I found […]

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Desperate

So much to do, now, that I’m resorting to my friends feeding me stuff that’s already appeared on other ‘Blogs. I’ve ‘Blogged before about the horrors in the Sudan—like it’d make a jot of difference. Anyway, Claire found this rant which is also linked to at Instapundit.

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Second Prize: Two Trips

Yesterday I received two books of raffle tickets from the Eastern Region Labour Party. I am supposed to sell them in aid of our campaigns. The first prize is a trip for two to the European Parliament. The joke is old, but perfect.

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Super-Genius

Chuck Jones—the director of Wile E. Coyote, “Super-Genius”—and his co-workers at Warner Brothers worked to a set of rules when creating the Road Runner cartoons: The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “Beep-Beep!” No outside force can harm the Coyote—only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products. The Coyote […]

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One Good Read Deserves Another

Further to my (and David Duff’s) praise for Lee Child‘s work I managed to fit in a few minutes reading his latest yesterday evening. It’s gripping, violent stuff. This volume in the series is more of a mystery novel as well, so people like Judith might enjoy it too—as long as I keep quiet about […]

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Come Back Later

It used to be sleepy around here (PooterGeek, that is). I could tinker with a ‘Blog entry a few times, publish it to the Web, tinker with it a bit more, and then, a couple of days later, somebody might wander by and read it. Now, people descend while I’m in the middle of correcting […]

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“…and the freedom”

Imagine this: you have skipped your morning exercise routine so you are not hot and sweaty as usual when you stagger into the bathroom; acutely low local water pressure means that your powershower can only produce icicles; and the T-shirt you know you are going to put on when you clamber out of the full-body […]

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Jesuits Go Boldly

For a long time, the Vatican has had a theological position on extraterrestrial life. There is even a Graham Greene-meets-Arthur C. Clarke novel about the implications of our encountering intelligent aliens. Today, Slashdot links to an interview with the Vatican astronomer. After outlining some of the possible scenarios for such a meeting, he goes on […]

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Grim Intuition

I spend far too much time thinking about Iraq; my friend Leasey is rather more sensible. On Monday (Friday?), she made a prediction that the extent of the publicity over the disgusting things going on in Abu Ghraib prison would lead to something exactly like this. I nodded absentmindedly. On Tuesday the latter story hit […]

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Thrills And Spills

I’ve been spending time more time than usual on public transport lately, so it’s time to review my recent diet of junk fiction. Persuader is a macho thriller written by an Englishman in an American setting and idiom. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve ordered one of Lee Child’s other “Jack Reacher” novels from […]

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Clash Of The Disadvantaged

Don’t, whatever you do, browse “everything2“. If you start you won’t finish until it has sucked your life away. One of the contributors goes by the username “spackle“. This will now be one of my most out-of-date ‘Blog entries because he wrote the following in 2001, under the title “Strange things homeless people have said […]

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