NSID Afpak meeting, originally uploaded by Downing Street. Check out this photo on Flickr. It’s in the Downing Street Flickr stream and I found myself intrigued by the table furniture. Empty candlesticks and nice water glasses. I would expect nothing less, really, and I wonder how that environment helps to remind the attendees of the [...]
A really lovely piece of animation. (via Alison Bechdel).
(I’m ignoring the fact I’ve not updated this site in months to bring you a half-formed thought about something I know virtually nothing about. Fun, heh?) I’ve been wondering about the VAT changes that are coming in on Monday. If VAT and the savings of 2.5% really will make a difference to what people buy, [...]
As I was cycling home from work yesterday evening, I decided to stop off at Waitrose at the Barbican. As I pulled up at the bike racks outside the shop, I saw some kids hanging around eyeing up the bikes. I chose an area close to the shop entrance and started to sort out locking [...]
Ben Goldacre has written a great piece for the Guardian about ID cards and why biometrics are not to be trusted. I have mixed feelings about Ben Goldacre – I think he is too quick to dismiss as quackery things that science can’t explain, but he is truly excellent on pointing out the misuse of [...]
Here’s a report on the BBC website about a female tennis coach who sexually abused a girl in her charge. Why mention it here? Because the BBC has chosen not to headline the piece something like “lesbian child abuser”, but instead “Tennis coach jailed for sex abuse” and I am happy about that (the headline, [...]
There’s a nice piece by Zoe Williams in the Guardian today about the length of time it takes to accept new radio presenters (and overcome the hatred of the annoying trails they make). She makes the excellent point that most listeners have little awareness of stations other than the one they are loyal to. Jane [...]
Ever since we came back from Canada, I’ve had a craving for a good stack of American pancakes, eaten out, for breakfast one weekend morning. This simple craving turned into a bit of a quest when I realised it’s not so easy to get pancakes around here. I posted a question on the SE1 website [...]
I went to Google with the intention of looking for I forget what, starting my search with ‘ways to’. I got a bit freaked by Google’s suggestions: I am encouraged that “ways to say I love you” comes above “ways to kill yourself”. On the other hand, you’d sort of hope that people could work [...]
Martha Kearney is taking over as main presenter of the World at One – one of the BBC’s flagship news programmes. Ellen DeGeneres is presenting the Oscars.