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Monthly Archives: November 2005
A Jack Vance Restaurant
I was introduced yesterday to the most absurd and delightful Chinese patisserie in Soho, possibly in Europe. The exterior walls are sheets of blue glass; even the urinals seem made from slabs of blue perspex, with a stepped slate trough … Continue reading
Posted in Travel notes
1 Comment
Gmail is not a word processor
I was bewildered by Vic Keegan’s article on gmail as a word processor; I should have been illuminated. It shows how many journalists still use a computer as a typewriter with fancy formatting. He wants a fast and lightweight program … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
12 Comments
Another patent story I missed
OK – I only found it after the deadline. But some idiot in the US Patent Office has approved one for “a flying saucer which depends on antigravity.” In a way, that’s almost more shocking than patents on hyperlinks.
Posted in nördig
4 Comments
That Sony rootkit
I have a big piece on IP going into Saturday’s Guardian. I’m not very happy about it, because I think it misses an important point about Sony’s rootkit, one of the most egregious examples of corporates taking ownership of things … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in nördig
2 Comments
Different from Kipling, how?
There is a long plug/interview with Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic Monthly online (not sure if it’s paywalled) which fills me with a soft despair. Here’s why: Instead of the oppressive colonial domination that characterized other empires, Kaplan describes America … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in War
Comments Off on Different from Kipling, how?
The Wall Street Journal comes out for torture
The Wall Street Journal has come out for torture in its leader on Saturday: “Yet according to many Bush Administration critics, the aggressive and stressful questioning techniques used successfully against the likes of KSM put the U.S. on a slippery … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in War
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Showing the instruments
Call me sentimental but I would like to believe that if Mr Bush and Mr Cheney had actually run for office on a programme of legalising torture, they might have lost the 2000 election. Possibly they had no strong opinions … Continue reading Continue reading
Sex and slavery
There was a glorious story in an Australian-owned tabloid about two teachers meeting in Queensland, where brothels have just been legalised. One of them had gone as a customer; the other was working there in her spare time. I don’t … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
Comments Off on Sex and slavery
A Phlegmagogue for the Elaphure
I’ve been dithering about what to put in this slot. In a linkier and shorter place I would simply put the two delightful words I found while cheating at the FT crossword yesterday — elaphure and phlegmagogue. An elaphure is … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Blather
7 Comments
Serendipity
The next entry on this blog will be the thousandth. I’m not sure how I should commemorate this milestone — perhaps proclaim a year of Jubilee? — but in the meantime, here’s a twelve sting guitar and a curiously shaped … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Pictures
2 Comments