Monthly Archives: September 2005

Bloody Michael Crichton

Owing to a tragic scheduling error, his testimony before the senate came in time for the Gdn’s front page, which meant that my carefully crafted thumbsucking was thrown away in favour of a report from someone who had the vulgarity … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | 4 Comments

de mortuis

a memorable obit in the Daily Telegraph today of M Scott Peck, the self-help guru, which closes with two paragraphs that could hardly be improved: Latterly he suffered from impotence and Parkinson’s Disease and devoted himself to Christian songwriting, at … Continue reading Continue reading

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The most disgusting story

I have done for years is in G2 today. One snag I hadn’t foreseen — the copy was delayed by an hour when it got caught in the company’s spam filter. UPDATE What I originally filed is below the fold … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in War | 8 Comments

Petrol prices, again.

James Surowiecki reports that there is a serious movement in some American states to suspend all “gas” taxes until — well, I don’t know, because things are never going to go back to what was normal in 1999. There used … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

Administrivia

I have a sort of review of John Battelle’s Google book up at the First Post, which is an interesting shot at a commercial site run by two real journalists (and old colleagues) Mark Law and David Jenkins. I’ve also … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 5 Comments

small smugness

There may not be many readers of the wrap, but at least one of them is the editor, which is why yesterday’s worm’s eye column pitched up on the front of today’s Guardian. Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | 3 Comments

Serious ethnographic note

The festival of diversity took place on a day when Trevor Phillips, who seems a very sharp cookie, was warning that there is a real danger of the emergence of a ghetto-ised and segregated underclass in this country, however much … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in British politics | 3 Comments

Silly Ethnographic note

Yesterday was Uttlesford Council’s diversity day, with a fete in the grounds of Audley End house. There was a fair cord and I did see one black person there. Though there are four or five whom one sometimes sees shopping … Continue reading Continue reading

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Another end of privacy

An astonishing piece of research, found through Bruce Schneier which shows that a sound recording of a typist at work for fifteen minutes can be analysed to reveal almost every word they typed. The trick is that the keys on … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Net stories | Comments Off on Another end of privacy

Redesign thoughts

The new Guardian gets better as you go into it. Perhaps that’s another way of saying that it works better with fewer stories on the page. I hate the front. Making allowances for the fact that all readers hate all … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | 5 Comments