Alex, over at the Museum of Hoaxes, wonders whether the Netherlands has disappeared as a result of a nuclear explosion. I am glad to report that we’re all still here…
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Sweet…
…that’s this photo of David Birch – a most unusual Carnival Queen. Good luck to him. Also, there’s this rather nice story in The Guardian about it.Leave a comment
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Putting The Boot In
Sometimes, I think that Mr. Duck can be unnecessarily cruel. My imagination is working overtime about the fallout from this one.Leave a comment
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Fun With Figures
Not Saussure reminds us that statistics have a habit of turning around and biting those who wield them.Leave a comment
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Cautious Cars And Cantankerous Kitchens
Donald Norman has posted the draft first chapter of a new book on his web site. It’s about how machines take control, and why this can lead to unintended results. Worth reading.Leave a comment
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Attacking The Enlightenment
Johann Hari points out that the real message that Pope Benedict was attempting to deliver last week amounted to an attack on the Enlightenment. Not surprising, really. I expect nothing less from Ratzinger. He has the chutzpah to claim that "the free pursuit of reason will lead all people to a rational belief in the Christian God described in the Bible". Um, no, I don’t think so. Quite the opposite, in fact.(hat tip to Ophelia over at ButterfliesAndWheels for the link)Leave a comment
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Who’s Deluded Here?
Richard Dawkins’ new book: The God Delusion is out. And the reviews are appearing. First up is a very negative review in Prospect Magazine by Andrew Brown (followed by a further negative ramble about the review in the Guardian’s Comment is Free). However, his dyspeptic review is countered by Joan Bakewell’s review of Dawkins’ book in today’s Guardian. She, by contrast, finds that "Dawkins gives it to believers with both barrels and cheers him on".I’ll make my own mind up on the book once I’ve read it. I’m currently awaiting it to drop into the postbox. But I can confidently predict that my reaction is more likely to be closer to that of Bakewell’s rather than Brown’s.Leave a comment
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White And Nerdy
I’ve always liked Weird Al Yankovic ever since "Eat It" and "Like A Surgeon", which to my horror, were released over twenty years ago. But he’s still going strong, his latest is White and Nerdy. Listen to the words and watch the video. Both are a tour de force… I love the M.C. Escher reference…2 responses to “White And Nerdy”
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Hey Geoff,
I had friends over from the States last week and they are huge fans of his…always singing some of his songs ….drives me mad mind…lol…David was amazed when we realized that his first recollection of Dear Al was over 20 years ago…and now his teen age kids are into them. time flies!! -
Hi, Vince,
"Time flies" – yeah, doesn’t it just! I think that the older I get, the faster time seems to be passing…
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Oedipus – The Movie
The story of Oedipus – in an 8 minute short film, performed by vegetables. Nicely done, particularly the bit where he puts out his eyes…(hat tip to In4mador)Leave a comment
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Scientific Alliance
I see that the news about the letter from the Royal Society to ExxonMobil has drawn a response from the Scientific Alliance. Luckily, Steven Poole is on hand to point out the unspeak in the response. Reading their web site, it doesn’t surprise me, it scores high on the Unspeak Meter (which I also like to think of as the Bullshit Meter).Leave a comment
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Face Illusion
An interesting illusion that plays with the way in which we perceive people’s faces. Though to use the face of Margaret Thatcher is enough to give me nightmares in any event.Leave a comment
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English Is A Patient On Life Support
Dr. Crippen is having a Victor Meldrew moment. I can well understand why. The Essence of Care programme has clearly laboured mightily, and doubtless at enormous expense, to produce a load of management-speak – otherwise known as twaddle and tripe.Leave a comment
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Letter From Thailand
Doug Ireland, on his DIRELAND blog, has a report from Alan Platt on the coup in Thailand. It makes interesting reading. Perhaps it is indeed "a step back to make a step forward".Leave a comment
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Camp Coffee
I grew up with foodstuffs such as Robertson’s Jams (with their golliwog labels) and Camp Coffee. And I never gave a thought to the semiotics. Nowadays, of course, we must agonise over the possible offence that we may be guilty of giving. Sepia Mutiny has a wonderful post about the evolution of the Camp Coffee label, an evolution that has been driven by political correctness. And what I really liked about the story was the totally from the left field bit about the Major General Sir Hector MacDonald. We are everywhere and everywhen…Leave a comment
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Impermanence
All things must pass. Everything dies.Perhaps it’s my age, but thoughts such as these increasingly occupy my mind. Not in a morbid way, but simply in the sense that it is so. This entry was triggered by Gelert posting his cosmic law:‘You shall never clean the toilet without remembering you may never use it again’At the same time, I’ve just started reading Joan Didion’s "The Year of Magical Thinking" – her memento mori, about her family, the death of her husband and survival. It opens thus:Life changes fast.Life changes in the instant.You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.The question of self-pity.But ain’t it the truth?And then, today, Dr. Charles posts one of his literary entries: Lantern. His writing is brilliant. Read it.Leave a comment
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Knowledge Dropped…
I mentioned the roundtable of Dropping Knowledge a while back, and mentioned my misgivings that it would be nothing more than a media event.Well, I went back to the web site, and guess what? It was a media event. I love the chutzpah of calling this a global dialog. What I saw was 112 monologues. No dialogue was entered into. Colour me cynical.Leave a comment
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A Most Singular Pavilion
This entry from Curiosities of Literature made my imagination spark into life.Leave a comment
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The Future of Science
A friend has just sent me a link to a live video webcast of the Future of Science conference that is currenly going on in Venice. Today is devoted to the theme of "evolution of matter"; tomorrow is "evolution of life" and Saturday’s theme is "evolution of mind". Here’s the conference programme. Some good things. I particularly want to see Dan Dennett’s talk on Saturday.One response to “The Future of Science”
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Thanks for this – I will try to watch.
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Branding
As Zune, Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iPod, prepares to be launched, there’s a good overview on the likely impact on the digital music market in today’s Guardian.Also in the article is a reference to a parody video that purports to show what happens when Microsoft’s designers stamp their branding on the iPod packaging. I’d seen the video before, and it’s worth seeing, because it is so very true. But what I hadn’t appreciated until now is that apparently it had been produced within Microsoft itself. An organisation that can laugh at itself can’t be all bad.Leave a comment
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