Month: November 2005
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T.E. Lawrence
At the weekend I went to a great new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum about Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence was a great Arabist, and I must admit that one of the books I’ve not read, but really wish I had, is Seven Pillars of Wisdom – don’t worry, I intend to put this right.…
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Neil Gaiman
Last night I joined many others to see Lenny Henry in conversation with Neil Gaiman. A very entertaining evening it was too even if I didn’t stay around to join an enormous queue and get a book signed. Here’s what Gaiman himself says about the evening (with links on from there).
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Evolution
51% of Americans don’t believe in evolution. I wonder how many don’t believe in gravity, or maybe eschew the idea that the earth travels around the sun? In the meantime, a trial reaches its conclusion.
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Jordan Bomb
Whilst not in any way wanting to belittle the tragic loss of life in hotels across Amman, Jordan tonight, I’ve got to feel sorry for the BBC’s Caroline Hawley. Fresh from the nervousness of Baghdad, she ends up in one of the bombed hotels in Jordan – hitherto relatively safe.
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Blair Loses Vote
Wow. Blair’s lost the vote in the Commons today regarding the 90 day detention. Thank goodness that enough Labour MPs saw sense in this. The 28 day vote’s forthcoming. [UPDATE] The 28 day vote has been passed. Of course this is still up from 14 days. I’m sure that this’ll still give the police plenty…
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HDTV
The BBC has announced its HDTV trial plans, with highlights of the main channel’s output available on satellite and cable. This’ll mean the timing should conincide quite nicely with Sky’s expected HDTV push around the same time. Interestingly the Beeb are also going to trial HDTV via Freeview in London where there are seemingly unused…
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Sky News In Widescreen
Somehow, Sky News in widescreen still doesn’t appear quite right when viewed in 4:3. They’re doing a split screen at the moment (showing the Chinese premier’s procession through London alongside protestors). But the more interesting part of the split is significantly smaller than the other part.
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90 Days
Yup – the stupid British public think that it’s a great idea that the police can lock someone up for three months without even charging them. Isn’t this another blindingly stupid idea? Politicians well know that the public at large simply don’t understand what the full ramifications of this kind of legislation truly is. Your…
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Kakuro
You don’t know how much of a sense of achievement I had this evening when I’d finally managed to solve a “moderate” Kakuro puzzle in The Guardian. It’s the new Sudoku don’t you know. I suspect that doing these things regularly is the only real way of solving them easily.
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Eating In Supermarkets
No, I don’t mean eating in the supermarkets’ cafeteria areas. Although I always feel that if you’re eating there, you’re probably pretty desperate. And they never have all the menu available. No, what I’m talking about are those people who start consuming their soon-to-be-purchases before they’ve actually reached the till. They drive me mad. I…
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Idea For Greasemonkey Script
Can somebody please write a script that de-Christmases sites like Amazon? All I want is the holly-festooned graphics removed or replaced…
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Mars
Mars really is spectacular at the moment. Without even trying, and just looking up in a firework filled, and streetlight heavy London sky, it’s very easy to spot – just near The Pleiades. In other news, Inmarsat is launching a massive satellite on Monday afternoon which is part of their global broadband system. It’s being…