Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has been suspended from the job for four weeks because ‘The Adjudication Panel for England’ decided that he has brought the job into disrepute by making insensitive remarks to a Jewish reporter. The exact rights and wrongs of the original remark can be argued over, but as a Londoner, [...]
Posts tagged with ‘news’
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No Smoking
14 February 2006 – 11:53 pm
MPs have just voted by a large majority for a total ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, probably coming into effect in 2007. It was expected beforehand that there would be some exemptions - pubs and/or private clubs - but in the event the more draconian version was passed.
As a non-smoker, this can [...]
ain’t nature wonderful?
24 January 2006 – 4:29 pm
Odd news…
EDIT: and a quotable quote.
Another wonder of nature.
Duchamp vandalism and BBC fuckwittery
7 January 2006 – 12:24 am
Someone took a hammer to Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. Which is the famous sculpture made from a urinal. I just found the BBC’s phrasing annoying:
A 77-year-old Frenchman has spent a night in custody in Paris after attacking a plain porcelain urinal considered to be a major artwork.
‘considered’ to be a major artwork? It’s one of [...]
Muslim Miss England
10 December 2005 – 12:27 pm
England is sending our first Muslim competitor to Miss World - the really rather attractive Hammasa Kohistani, whose family came to the UK as refugees from Afghanistan. Since her presence in the competition is two fingers up to the Taleban and religious nutjobs generally, I hope she does well. But I’m still slightly disappointed we’re [...]
The Red Crystal
8 December 2005 – 10:56 am
A red ‘crystal’ has joined the Red Cross and Red Crescent as an emblem for ambulances and relief workers. This is because Israel refuse to use either the Cross or the Crescent, and other Middle-Eastern nations refuse to accept a red Cross of David.
What they really ought to do, of course, is scrap the Red [...]
Fairy rocks
21 November 2005 – 2:50 pm
The Times reports today that a property developer in Scotland has had to come up with new plans for a housing estate to accomodate a large rock after locals protested that digging it up would disturb the fairies that lived there. Or possibly because Pictish kings had been crowned on it - their stories seem [...]
Vatican Starman Slams ID!
20 November 2005 – 12:44 am
“The Vatican’s chief astronomer said on Friday that Intelligent Design Theory isn’t science and doesn’t belong in science classrooms.”
The ‘Vatican’s chief astronomer’? I wonder if CERN has a head priest who can be consulted for a theological perspective on particle physics.
I don’t suppose the Vatican astronomer is empowered to define the Catholic Church’s theological stance [...]
familiar language in the news
5 November 2005 – 11:38 pm
A report in the Times today about the riots in France said this:
Magid Tabouri, 29, leader of a group of youth workers at Bondy, next to Aulnay, said he was suprised that the eruption had taken so long. “It has been simmering with all the exclusion, mistreatment and social misery and collapsed education,” he said. [...]
Pakistan Quake
9 October 2005 – 8:55 pm
‘At least 19,000‘ may have been killed by an earthquake in Pakistan. England’s newly popular cricket team are playing in Pakistan in a month’s time. Please, someone, find a way of using this to raise a lot of money for charity. Who’ll be the first bank to offer a donation for each run scored by [...]
oh to be a Tory, now October’s here
4 October 2005 – 10:54 am
It must have been pretty dismal being a Conservative party activist over the past 12 years (apparently 1993 was the last time they had an approval rating of over about 30%). But what fun it must be to be at the party conference this week! Lots of opportunity to gossip, a feeling that for a [...]
Brown vs. Blair, speechifyingly
28 September 2005 – 11:18 am
I thought this article by Daniel Finkelstein about the differing rhetorical styles of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair was surprisingly interesting, given the subject matter.
Bob Denver & Americana
9 September 2005 – 10:25 am
Bob Denver, the star of Gilligan’s Island, has died. Gilligan’s Island is one of those bits of Americana which feel familiar but I actually know entirely via hearsay. It’s one of the most frequently used pop culture references in other US pop culture - they mentioned it on House just last night - but I’ve [...]
‘Get off the fucking freeway’
9 September 2005 – 9:43 am
A thoroughly depressing article about the official relief effort after Katrina. Via Emily Lloyd.
I’m back.
4 September 2005 – 10:43 pm
I’ve come back from Perigord to the grim news from New Orleans. I don’t really have anything to say about that, for the moment.
I did manage to listen to the cricket on Radio4 LW via a buzzy little radio. I ended up having to hold it out of an upstairs window and nearly had [...]
Charlie sticks his oar in again
24 August 2005 – 1:46 pm
The Queen’s greatest virtue is that that I have no idea what her political views are. On that basis, Prince Charles could be the one to kill off the monarchy. Sometimes I agree with his opinions, more often I don’t - but I don’t want to know them. The monarchy is tolerable as long as [...]
Moog dies
23 August 2005 – 10:30 am
Dr Moog has died. I love the sound of analogue synthesisers. It’s like drum-machines - the overtly mechanical sound of them is part of the appeal. I was about to try and come up with a theoretical justification - something about their overt artificiality and how in a sense it brings you closer to the [...]
Intelligent Design
21 August 2005 – 1:57 pm
God Chimes in on Intelligent Design. Creationism seems like such a soft target. It scares me silly that anyone takes it seriously.