Yearly Archives: 2007

The Swedish provinces on youtube

Posted on January 24, 2007 by acb

Last night I discovered that there are lots of small Swedish towns where people have recorded their lives on youtube. These are places where boredom is the fourth dimension. In Lilla Edet, for example, where I lived for three years, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Anyone out there speak Finnish?

Posted on January 22, 2007 by acb

I am transcribing a tape of a gold prospector talking about his adventures in the arctic mountains of Norway. We’re talking in Swedish, but his first language is Finnish. Most of it is sparkling clear, and the sound quality is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | 3 Comments

Orotund and rotund too

Posted on January 21, 2007 by acb

In case you have wondered what the masterminds behind Bush’s surge actually look like in the flesh, the excellent Belgravia Dispatch has a link to the video of one of them orating. How Kipling would have despised them, and despaired! … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

An oddity of Wikipedia

Posted on January 21, 2007 by acb

Every now and then, when wading through the swamp that is Wikipaedia, one comes on a tussock of firm ground: something clearly written and well-argued, if a little stilted, which does not leave a methanous smell as you pull your … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories | 1 Comment

Google vs Spam

Posted on January 18, 2007 by acb

I wonder if anyone has analysed the extent to which spam shapes the internet. In particular, I am thinking about the way that we have to trade off a degree of privacy to get effective protection. Google has excellent spam … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | 2 Comments

More deaths needed

Posted on January 18, 2007 by acb

One of the great questions of the Iraqi debacle is whether the West can any longer pay the price of imperialism. That is actually one of the things that Melanie Phillips gets right, though she does not notice the more … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Two stories of American Education

Posted on January 14, 2007 by acb

A middle-aged woman is facing forty years in prison in Connecticut for having spyware on her her school’s computer: Mrs Julie Amero has just been convicted on four counts of “risk of injury to a minor or impairing the morals … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | 5 Comments

In praise of Melanie Phillips

Posted on January 13, 2007 by acb

It’s naive to suppose that the most informative newspapers are those which tell you the facts most reliably. Sometimes the newspapers that bring most news are full of lies; but if these are the lies which the powerful believe, or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on In praise of Melanie Phillips

The reasonable case against gays

Posted on January 13, 2007 by acb

in the Church cannot of course be made in public. It is this. They bitch, cabal, backbite and lobby for their own — in other words, they behave like evangelicals. Continue reading →

Posted in God | 3 Comments

Read and noted

Posted on January 12, 2007 by acb

Elaine Morgan, on childcare and feminism, in today’s Guardian: “What really went wrong is this. Everyone agreed that women should be free to work outside the home if we chose. We didn’t foresee that that would gradually morph into the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment