Yearly Archives: 2008

Mumin blogging

Posted on February 9, 2008 by acb

It’s my birthday today, and I’ll translate a bit of Tove Jansson if I want to: this is chapter 3 of Sent i November which I have never actually read in English. I really really wish I knew some small … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 2 Comments

I bet they kill this par

Posted on February 8, 2008 by acb

But when you open tomorrow’s Guardian there ought to be an analysis on the news pages that starts like this: The Archbishop of Canterbury, a man whose prose is as luxuriant as his beard, might not have anything in common … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism | 3 Comments

Deer stalking

Posted on February 6, 2008 by acb

Some things are just too strange to be believed. I was walking yesterday in the fields near Strethall Church and saw what seemed like a cloud of smoke above the farm there. It was pigeons, rising from the field to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Pictures | 1 Comment

Tony Judt interview, as requested

Posted on February 4, 2008 by acb

This was written for the Guardian, which for some reason never used it; the only other one of my profiles to suffer that fate was Benny Morris. I suspect that fear of endless I/P thrashes played a role in both … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, War | 10 Comments

Scraps at the end of a long silly day

Posted on January 30, 2008 by acb

These quiz things seem popular on the internet, so here is a one question personality test, without any typing, to try: what is the word you see here? Damian Thompson has now admitted his story was nonsense, but what I … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 7 Comments

Kornbluth and Eugenics

Posted on January 30, 2008 by acb

Looking around for links with which to embellish my last piece, I discovered that almost all of the references on the net to the great Cyril Kornbluth story The Marching Morons stressed its eugenicist — actually dysgenicist — character, something … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Comments Off on Kornbluth and Eugenics

Another approach to sanity on the net

Posted on January 30, 2008 by acb

I was told the other day about an interesting feature of some of the most widely used blog comment software in the newspaper business, Pluck Site Life, which is used by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and others. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | 6 Comments

Damian Thompson: wtf f?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by acb

There is a completely insane story up on his blog at the moment about a supposed riot in which “Muslims” shut down one of the public hospitals in Sydney rather than allow an autopsy to be performed on a young … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 3 Comments

Surveillance: wtf?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by acb

The Telegraph reports today that there are more than a thousand phone-tapping applications made (and granted) every day in Britain. The paper is particularly worked up because it is not just the intelligence services and the police but local councils … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 3 Comments

Nice Mac things

Posted on January 28, 2008 by acb

I had to help a friend buy a macbook the other day. My well-informed advice was pretty simple: “You don’t need that or that or even that. Buy the cheapest one in the shop, and, by the way, have you … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | 7 Comments