Yearly Archives: 2006

This is how it ends

Posted on November 25, 2006 by acb

You know that impulse to have a quick game of freecell now and then? Well, here is a man who yields to it. To be precise, he claims to have played the first 32,000 games in sequence four times over, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | 1 Comment

More fragments

Posted on November 23, 2006 by acb

Anyone who knows me will be astonished that I managed to score 83.6% on this test — it’s worth ten minutes of your time if you are interested in musical perception. Not safe for work, unless you have headphones or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 6 Comments

Magisterial

Posted on November 21, 2006 by acb

Geoffrey Wheatcroft has a wonderful piece in the Guardian today on Lord and Lady Black. He is funny both about their social pretensions, which were indeed comic and life-enhancing, and their fanatical American nationalism, which was distinctly less life-enhancing. As … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Hit and Run

Posted on November 21, 2006 by acb

The Saturday Financial Times is an unfailing pleasure. It offers all the pleasures of journalism: enlightenment, entertainment, and the occasional tingle of outrage all over. This normally comes from the How to Spend It section, apparently edited by the last … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Guardian fund for rent boys

Posted on November 19, 2006 by acb

Readers with a long memory for embarrassment will flinch at the words “Clark Cook County” — the Guardian’s attempt to swing the 2004 presidential election by organising a letter-writing campaign to a the voters of a marginal district of Ohio. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

Shutting down scammers

Posted on November 16, 2006 by acb

Does anyone know where one can complain to get entirely fraudulent phone numbers shut down? A friend of my wife’s, a genuine hero, the Russian dissident Mikhail Kukobaka, has been hit by a transparent scam letter telling him he has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories | 4 Comments

What I missed out on in art lessons

Posted on November 10, 2006 by acb

Despite going to schools where there were very good art teachers, I had, and have, no talent at all. Or so I thought until I saw This video. Now I understand that my problem, all along, was that I had … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on What I missed out on in art lessons

Browser truce

Posted on November 10, 2006 by acb

I have been using Opera for nearly ten years now, and for most of that time it has been the quickest and best-thought out browser on any platform. It had tabbed browsing, keyboard control, bespoke ad blocking, and full indexed … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig, OOo | Comments Off on Browser truce

The level headed Andrew Stephen

Posted on November 10, 2006 by acb

who is one of the best things about the New Statesman, is not at all euphoric about the Democrat victory, saying they will now form a circular firing squad. But what he says about the Republicans is rather more worrying: … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

Victory celebrations

Posted on November 8, 2006 by acb

The bloke who came to fix our washing machine yesterday turned out to be an ex-squaddie, who had left the army after being blown out of a troop carrier by an IED which killed one of his mates. He was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on Victory celebrations