Monthly Archives: May 2008

But this story is entirely true

Survivors of the last Lambeth Conference will remember the positively Burmese quality of press organisation. Apparently it was just as bad from the inside: someone working there asked what arrangements had been made to bring to Canterbury the Cardinal who … Continue reading

Posted in God, Journalism | 2 Comments

Metafictional diary note

I was drinking last night with the Archbishop of Canterbury and he didn’t have any interesting gadgets in his cassock but later that evening I bumped into Sean who showed me the first worthwhile use of an iPhone: fishporn. He … Continue reading

Posted in Blather, God, nördig | 1 Comment

Pass the sickbag, baby Jesus

Religion’s all right when it doesn’t deal in sentimentality. But much of the religious comment on the Embryo bill has been just disgusting. I would have voted in favour in favour of lowering the abortion limit myself; I fully accept … Continue reading

Posted in God, Journalism | 3 Comments

More Weizenbaum

The prescience of Joe Weizenbaum continues. After long detours, I have returned to the end of his book, where he is asking whether the world has any understanding of what computers will do. He saw very clearly how a “system” … Continue reading

Posted in Net stories, nördig | 2 Comments

My contribution to Youtube

I didn’t put this here. Still less did I supply the cheesy title. A friend found it and told me. But I’m quite happy it escaped into the wild: it is the grim bit of my last Analysis programme. Listen … Continue reading

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My life is complete

This evening I heard a columnist for the Washington Post explain to a public meeting that “since I came to England, people keep telling me that American journalism is po-faced. I don’t know what po-faced means”

Posted in Blather, Journalism | Comments Off on My life is complete

How computers improve life

or not: an occasional series. This entry comes from lifehacker: Calendar: Track Time Between Haircuts with Google Calendar and Spreadsheet Googler Matt Cutts uses Google Calendar and Google Spreadsheets to keep track of how long he’s gone between haircuts—a good … Continue reading

Posted in Blather, Net stories | 3 Comments

Byways of modern scholarship

Looking for references to the Byron quote in the previous post, I came across two unlikely biographical sites on the net: this one seems to have taken the early Wikipedian route of lifting large chunks from out of copyright reference … Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

Here lies the grave of Castlereagh

Even if Phil Davison’s obit of Robert Vesco in the FT is not up to Byronic standards of brevity and eloquence it is still a fun read: Of all the adjectives used to describe him, Robert Vesco – who has … Continue reading

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This is just silly

It is now possible to measure distances on Google Maps. The trick is fairly well hidden, under “Dig a Hole through the Earth” on the featured content sidebar, but if you find it a bewildering collection of geeky measurements become … Continue reading

Posted in Blather, Net stories | Comments Off on This is just silly