If you’ve got Macromedia Flash installed on your computer this video is deeply entertaining [via The Motley Fool].
Read More13Mar05 — 0
March 2005
11Mar05 — 0
Searches Of The Week
Someone was brought here yesterday by a search for “Get your Colonial Shame off my breasts”. What they really wanted was this [safe for work]. Other recent PooterGeek hits: “sinn fein mobile download” “truckers favourite gay sex stop” “chav style home decor” “billie piper breasts” “nice things to do for your boyfriend” “big breasted landladies” […]
Read More10Mar05 — 0
Preemptive Excuse
I’ve just come back from a nice dinner at the Anonymous Economist’s and have posted twice about genetics after I’ve been drinking. I can’t hold my drink—so both my most recent submissions are subject to editing in the cold light of day. ‘Night, Europe. Hello, America.
Read More09Mar05 — 3
Jungle VIPs
Scientists are almost as susceptible to a certain type of urban myth as the rest of the population. One popular one was that there are 100 000 genes in the human genome. When the first estimates of “the number of genes”—I use quotes because exactly what constitutes a single gene is subtle, complex, and controversial—based on […]
Read More08Mar05 — 16
Segregation
The UK government has rejected the proposal by Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality that, in the hope of tackling consistent academic underachievement by that group, black male pupils be taught separately for some subjects. The Department for Education and Skills says it would have “negative effects”. Today a spokesperson from […]
Read More07Mar05 — 16
The Last Outpost Of Traditional Rule
The ever-temperate front page of The Independent screams, “IS LEBANON WALKING INTO ANOTHER NIGHTMARE?” Without a copy to hand, I think you can imagine the name and the roseate visage that make up the byline beneath the headline. Because the Indie charges for access to the online version of its output I can only quote […]
Read More07Mar05 — 1
Kiss That Frog
“Israel, not entirely evil,” says French socialist (responding with friendly politeness as I address him in an English accent on the streets of Paris): When London Mayor Ken Livingstone wrote a poison-penned tirade against Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Friday’s edition of the British Guardian, it made headlines in Britain, Israel and beyond. […]
Read More07Mar05 — 4
Wonderful Gifts
I had some superb birthday presents this year. I’d especially like to thank Judith for Keane’s Hopes And Fears, Leasey for Ultraviolet, and the Anonymous Economist for the Pierre Marcolini chocolates. Despite the cliché title, Hopes And Fears is a real delight. It’s indie rock descended from the Radiohead-Coldplay line, but without the guitars. She […]
Read More06Mar05 — 4
Spaced
In today’s Observer [via Hak]: On Tuesday the BBC launches the return of Doctor Who after an absence of nine years. The first episode of the new series, by Russell T Davies, writer of Queer as Folk and Doctor Who’s new creative director, will be screened at the end of this month… …this time the […]
Read More06Mar05 — 1
NO PENISES
Despite years of renting I have never encountered one of those “NO DOGS, NO BLACKS, NO IRISH” signs that used to pock the British landscape. Everyone who knows me will, however, have heard my Mrs Turpey story. They can skip everything up to the last paragraph. I was working for the university in Oxford in […]
Read More06Mar05 — 0
Hold The Front Page
I’ve just heard a radio ad for the annual national Comic Relief campaign. (For one day every year Brits get themselves sponsored to do silly things for charity.) The radio spot featured thanks and testimony from a previous beneficiary of the fund: Yousef, a gay asylum seeker who sought refuge in Britain because homosexuality is […]
Read More05Mar05 — 0
Catching
Scientific American writes about EpiSims, a program that simulates the spread of an infectious disease throughout a population, taking into account the social interactions of the people within it. [via Slashdot] This is a good time to point out that I conflated a couple of different issues when I rambled about the spread of HIV […]
Read More04Mar05 — 5
TD-ous
The Genome Campus library subscribes to several publications that I have to force myself only to skim read. If I don’t there’s a good chance I’ll throw them across its outer reading room and stamp on them and Joan the Head Librarian will have to report me to Security again. One, obviously, is The Independent, […]
Read More03Mar05 — 0
Anti-Striptease
If you have Flash installed in your browser, this is a pleasing diversion. [via The Motley Fool]
Read More02Mar05 — 2
Iran’s Nuclear Programme: The Truth
The BBC has a round-up of “experts’” views on “Iran’s nuclear crisis”. Helpfully, after the introduction to the piece, each comment is abstracted to a single line. One of the wise men questioned by Auntie—Sanam Vakil, of the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington—offers this new insight into the affair: “The Iranians need some really big […]
Read More01Mar05 — 3
The Price Of Imperialism
Under the headline “Asylum Falling Around The World”, The Beeb reports the United Nations reporting that: “The number of asylum seekers coming to the industrialised world fell by a fifth in 2004 to its lowest level in 16 years, according to the United Nations.” . . . “…the number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and […]
Read More01Mar05 — 0
Still Borked
I wrote too soon. The verification system for comments is choking on even the most basic HTML. When I get a chance I’ll try to fix it. This is getting bone-crushingly dull.
Read More01Mar05 — 1
Er, Commenting Fixed Now
There was a point at which even I couldn’t comment here, but, thanks to casualsavant’s perfect bug report—not just “it doesn’t work”, but details of the error message too, I think I have sorted out the problem she identified. Please, everyone else, email me if you are having any difficulties submitting your pearls to PooterGeek.
Read More01Mar05 — 1
Star Trek: The Next Imperialist Neocon Zionist Conspiracy
“TrekUnited” is an organisation that claims to be dedicated to stopping the cancellation of the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise. It is holding rallies in New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and London. Need I say any more?
Read More01Mar05 — 0
Machine Logic
What happens when inflation on goods goes negative and inflation on services stays positive? You get a free computer for signing up with a mobile phone network.
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