When I was a kid I was fascinated by a 3-D photo viewer called the View-Master. Last night as I lay in bed with my ThinkPad having finished off my latest post on the Wedding Photography Blog, I followed Design | asides from my blogroll there to the Magnum Photos site and experienced the same magic I […]
Following Blognor Regis’s coverage of the Hollywood-style comeback of Floyd Landis in the Tour, I did a Google News search for the latest and I found this real story from the online version of The Gainsville Sun: LACK OF LANCE HURTS AREA INTEREST By Elizabeth Hillaker Special to the Sun July 21. 2006 6:01AM As the Tour de France nears what is […]
Further to my recent post about executive salaries, here’s an article from Tuesday about how the tech firms that pay their CEOs the most give the lowest returns to investors. [via Slashdot]
Via Normblog I read the Times’ transcript of an accidentally broadcast conversation between George W. Bush and Tony Blair at the G8 summit. By downloading the original recording and processing it with various digital sound programs I have been able to reconstruct the inaudible parts of the exchange. Here I present the full transcript, with […]
Slashdot links to a tale of how a systems administrator scammed a 419 scammer, helped indigenous craftspeople, and obtained two rather nice wooden sculptures. The Age writes: “When he found a willing victim, his anti-scam unfolded in much the same way as a typical 419 scam, promising payment only after a substantial investment had been laid […]
A service station just off the Fifth Circle of Hell, very early in the morning, somewhere around the peak hour for suicide attempts: My journey time has been tripled by the closure of relevant sections of the M11 and the M25. The woman who lives in my sat nav has been asked to re-calculate the […]
I’m not very good at crossword puzzles. My dad, however, was schooled by Jesuits, did classics at university, taught English for decades, and collects useless information. If you wanted to build an elite special forces crossword-solving unit then that is probably how you would train its members. Since he is a connoisseur of the biggest […]
After you’ve read this blog’s harmless and amusing comparison of real college life with co-ed porn movies, check out the comments, where, for no immediately obvious reason, a visitor launches an irrelevant tirade about, well, you can probably fill in the rest if I reproduce the last couple of sentences: “I hope those Iraqis kick […]
I’ve just had one of those “ain’t life sweet?” moments: finally, after a long hot drive home from my parents’, I got to eat my dinner whilst I listened to the BBC Radio 4 Front Row special about musician and producer Quincy Jones. Asked about his famous Las Vegas live recording with Frank Sinatra, he begins: […]
On the subject of christenings, someone at the Motley Fool has noticed that the name of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new child, “Shiloh Pitt”, is a world-class spoonerism waiting to happen.
I keep being told that the Euston Manifesto Group is being funded by The Lizardoid Hegemon: “Lets be quite clear about this; the ‘Henry Jackson Society’ and the ‘Euston Manifesto’ are out-and-out right-wing neoconservative organisations set up deliberately to confuse and belittle the Left. They are supported directly by wealthy American neoconservative organisations and are simply […]
Further to my two articles about Playboy last year, here and here, those of you who have the requisite plug-in installed might want to watch this smart and very short film by Laurie Anderson. [Provided they let you stream small video files, it’s safe for work.] [via Exploding Aardvark]
Further to the ongoing debate in the comments here about street evangelism, Fark links to the anti-preachers.
A while back I linked to Saturday Night Live’s excellent “Narnia Rap”, Lazy Sunday. Via An Englishman In New York, I have now experienced Britain’s response to this online hit: Lazy Sunday UK: We Drink Tea. [Requires Macromedia Flash Player.] Unlike the US original, the rapping is painfully inept, but I think that’s the point. It […]
“We want to get married. I won’t let this woman get away,” Tom Cruise told the German media Monday. The world famous movie star said he and Katie Holmes, also of Hollywood, were planning to marry this summer. They have been engaged since last June.
Some freaky blog technology glitch has resulted in a link back to PooterGeek being posted underneath a review of The Road To Guantánamo on a site calling itself “The Movies Blog”. Worse: the text of the link is the heading of a post of mine where I enthused about a trailer for Team America: World […]
The Anonymous Economist draws my attention to this amazing story: James McGaugh is one of the world’s leading experts on how the human memory system works. But these days, he admits he’s stumped. McGaugh’s journey through an intellectual purgatory began six years ago when a woman now known only as AJ wrote him a letter detailing her […]
The Guardian today prints Jimmy Carter’s peace plan for the Middle East: Israel should withdraw from the occupied territories, and its right to exist must be recognised by all Arabs. Thanks, Jimmy.
Scientology is evil rubbish. South Park is gloriously disrespectful of every kind of religious and ideological fairy tale. So this story LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Isaac Hayes said on Monday he was quitting his job as the voice of the lusty character “Chef” on the satiric cable TV cartoon “South Park,” citing the show’s […]
For girls (or boys) reading this who used to have a crush on John Corbett, the actor who played DJ Chris Stevens in the TV series Northern Exposure, an uncharacteristically frivolous Gloria Salt has some bad news. For the (other) boys, all I can say is that there’s a special kind of schadenfreude that comes from […]
Regular readers here know that I had little time for the argument that “we” had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein had a strategic arsenal trained on Hoxton hidden under his various country homes. It’s been said that I’ve been quite rude about people who signed up too confidently for certain types of WMD-related bollocks, […]
Black man wins gold medal in Winter Olympics for first time in history, offers Whitey surrender terms.
You won’t be surprised to read that I thoroughly approve of miscegenation. One day the whole world will be beige. There will be no war, all corner shops will sell five-spice, and no one will be able to make a buddy movie featuring a funny black sidekick. It always made me smile that the genome […]
As announced prematurely back here by Jackie, here’s news of this month’s celebrity break-up. (But, according to the cover of one of the sleb mags in the newsagent’s George Clooney and Teri Hatcher may be involved in merger talks—denial here.)
I would happily sign the Economist’s editorial today on US healthcare myself (but for that paper’s irritating misuse of the word “America”). Many ‘Bloggers with an unthinking fetish for “market solutions” would do well to give it and the associated special report a scan: [N]owhere has a bigger health problem than America. Soaring medical bills […]
Sorry about the thin posting so far this week. I’ve been busy. Surprisingly, considering it covers those strange games Americans play, there are items in The Onion’s sports review of 2005 that even Brits can find funny. I missed their “World’s Emotionally Strongest Man” report when it first appeared last September: During the show’s premiere, a two-hour […]
The Simpsons at its best gave us some of the finest television ever broadcast. Here’s how it’s made. [via Slashdot]
Rock chick? Heavily pregnant? At last an answer to your fashion needs, including something to raise eyebrows down at those pre-natal classes. [via Frank Cheshire]
Hi! Welcome to the CIA Airlines check-in desk. Could I ask you to itemize your hand luggage as you place it on the belt, sir? Er, one holdall of shoes, running gear, and toiletries; one suitcase of casual clothes; one suit carrier containing three identical black suits and ties with matching Ray-Bans; one attaché case containing […]
You might have guessed from the thinness of posting here that I am busy at the moment, but the Anonymous Economist recommends this (non-free) editorial from the New York Times. I extract the first five and last three paragraphs: IF you believed Tom DeLay then, you no doubt believe now that the deposed House majority […]