August 2009
75 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-8-30) →
Alfred Brendel (20)
The Antlers (19)
Radiohead (15)
Frédéric Chopin (12)
LCD Soundsystem (12)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Why corporate IT should unchain our office... →
This is so true. I’d genuinely get a lot more work done if all my work emails just came into my Gmail account along with everything else.
“They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them...”
– Andy Warhol, The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol
State of the Art - A Leap Forward With Snow... →
David Pogue’s Snow Leopard review in the New York Times makes it sound well worth £25.
Baltimore upon Thames? Not true, that →
Good response to Chris Grayling’s comments on The Wire from Misha Glenny who’s actually watched it and also looked at crime stats in the UK.
Podcast: Kennedy →
In which Thom and Michael “report” “live” from the “Edinburgh” “festival”, discuss their recent Prom experiences, establish their knowledge of LEGO giraffe anatomy, and seek answers to the eternal question, “What’s wrong with the muppet’s eyes?
Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing →
US-centred, but it’s pretty on the money for the UK as well.
An uncreative solution to online piracy →
An excellent article on Mandelson’s file-sharing fiasco by John Naughton, Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the OU.
When poodles turn into peacocks →
Human beings are weird creatures. That said, I quite like the buffaloodle (to coin a term).
Heresy Corner: The Koran: not a patch on the Bible →
Interesting, and well-argued post, based on Sebastian Faulks’s description of the Koran in the Sunday Times.
“It is possible that a few thinking viewers, after experiencing a season or two...”
– David Simon (for Chris Grayling)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-8-23) →
Talking Heads (19)
Raphael Saadiq (14)
Dirty Projectors (13)
Florence + The Machine (12)
Laura Marling (12)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Sexy A-Levels →
Since we all know that only sexy young women take A-Levels, and when they get their results, they do a lot of jumping.
Jogging
I’ve recently been looking through some pictures my dad took of me as a child. In one I must be about 5 or 6 years old. I have orange, amazingly curly hair and I’m wearing a t-shirt that just says ‘jogging’. Whether this was an attempt by my parents to change me into the sport-loving fitness freaks that they weren’t, or whether it was a t-shirt bought already dripping...
John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star... →
“So, large space worm lives in asteroid, disguises itself as a cave and waits for unwary spaceships to fly by so it can eat them? Makes the Sarlaac look like a marvel of natural selection, it does.”
You’ve had 12 years. Call that an Opposition? →
Matthew Parris’s dissection of his own former party’s time in opposition is harsh but fair.
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“The worst thing to post or upvote is something that’s intensely but shallowly...”
– Hacker News: Welcome, coining a phrase that I will be re-using often. (via merlin)
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Podcast: Standards →
In which Thom and Michael talk and stuff. Like every week. I suppose you think this text will help you know whether it’s worth downloading. Ha. You were so wrong. OK, A-levels, journalism, U2, the Proms, and Hitler. One of these doesn’t really get covered very fully. All the others are FULLY covered, so we never need to discuss them again. Thom wants to know if I’m ever going to stop typing, but...
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Political correctness story not correct, or... →
On a day filled with a fair amount of disgust on my part of atrocious standards of journalism, the Mail’s always there to leap in and trump the lot.
Excellent article by Bruce Handy on Mad Men →
Shows you how good journalism can be. Insightful, engaging and beautifully written.
“To philosophise is to learn to die”
– Karl Jaspers
Steve Jobs: The man who polished Apple →
A well-researched, intelligent article about Steve Jobs would be a fascinating read. This, however, is sub-GCSE, poorly substantiated, cliche-heavy drivel that contains nothing new, interesting or worth reading. And Murdoch thinks we should pay for this tat.
Why Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is so great →
Monday was the 50th anniversary of possibly the best album ever recorded. Here Fred Kaplan explains some of its genius in Slate.
Film Adaptation Of 'The Brothers Karamazov' Ends... →
“It’s all here,” Grey added. “The opening scene, that part a little bit later on where some big commotion is taking place but you’re not quite sure what it is, that monastery thing they all go…
Stephen Fry on those who say 40% of tweets are... →
“Bollocky bollocks to the lot of them.”
“Hey man, it’s just music. It’s playing clean and hitting the pretty...”
– Charlie Parker
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-8-16) →
The National (63)
U2 (14)
Todd Snider (12)
Sergei Prokofiev (10)
Florence + The Machine (7)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
We Have A Healthy Scepticism About the NHS →
Many of the recent sceptical articles about the #welovetheNHS Twitter campaign have missed the campaign’s origins for their own means. However, the Heresiarch puts forward a strong case for what is…
“All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.”
– James A. Garfield
More Details on iTunes 9's Social Media... →
I hope the Last.fm integration is true, since it should mean the Last.fm app won’t have to crash iTunes for me daily anymore.
London's Worst Disasters on a Google Map →
Clearly most are focused around the centre, ie, the only bit of London that existed for a lot of its history. Still, fascinating if rather morbid stuff.