February 2010
66 posts
Did Gordon Brown throw a tangerine into a... →
No. He didn’t. But that didn’t stop The Telegraph and The Sun reporting Robert Popper’s prank phone call to LBC.
In the west, adultery isn't punished by stoning.... →
Brooker’s post on the high-minded prurience of the press is great.
The Economists New Clothes →
Excellent post by Adam Curtis that questions quite how much economists really know about the system they comment on.
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thomyk Podcast 64: Curling →
In which Thom and Michael reveal their love of Winter Olympic sports. Michael enjoys watching the sport of curling where people toss stones down highly polished blocks of ice. Thom enjoys watching a different sport of curling in his bathroom.
They also discuss the BAFTAs, and whether or not Heavy Rain will be a load of old button-jabbing wank, or the answer to every gamer’s slightly damp dreams...
No, it is *not* your technique – it’s time for... →
Andrew from the Brother’s Brick makes a persuasive case that a Lego building technique is not something you own, or can require people to give you credit for.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21) →
The Rural Alberta Advantage (26)
The National (25)
PJ Harvey (13)
The Very Best (11)
Death Cab for Cutie (11)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Ten Rules for Writing Fiction →
I’m definitely one for falling into Elmore Leonard’s adverb trap. Definitely.
“Writers tend to work early in the morning, or late at night, when brains are...”
– Scott Adams: Like a Night Watchman (via marco)
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“Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a...”
– Emile Cioran, Anathemas and Admirations
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“You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.”
– Norman Douglas, South Wind
How the film industry reward people who pay for... →
Well, exactly.
20 Unholy Recipes: Dishes So Awful We Had to Make... →
Essentially, if you watch Mad Men, this is what they may be eating at those dinner parties.
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Some thoughts on iPhone Opera
Opera are apparently looking to make a version of their mobile web browser for the iPhone. Although I’m as intrigued as the next person to see whether Apple approve it (my guess is that they probably will), I don’t think it’s worth getting too excited about. The fact is that whether they approve it or not, they’ll never allow it to be the default browser on the phone, and...
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Beirut live at Music Hall of Williamsburg →
A 40 minute video of a Beirut gig from last year, properly filmed. Wonderful.
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thomyk Podcast 63: Brits →
In which Thom and Michael pretty much just continue from where they left off last week with rants about other people and things, like the Brit Awards, and the man who stopped in front of Michael at the top of a tube station escalator to highlight a passage in his Bible. Yes, he’s not letting that one go. It was really really annoying. You have no idea. Anyway, prioritise, focus and win!
Apple's 10 biggest problems →
Since Gruber’s such a fan of Apple and clearly knows a lot about the company, I think all of these problems are extremely well-aimed.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
– Leo Tolstoy, Pamphlets
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-14) →
Flight of the Conchords (15)
Coldplay (13)
Tinariwen (13)
Nailah (6)
The National (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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“Where there’s tea there’s hope.”
– Arthur W. Pinero
Social media made simple →
Yup. This pretty much sums up the situation we find ourselves in.
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Roo makes some observations on how he records... →
Some great tips in here for budding podcasters.
“We decided that in game shows in the future, contestants will win a free...”
– Douglas Coupland, Microserfs
Sounds like Coupland predicted most of Channel 4’s output back in 1995
Excellent diagrams by Ward Shelley →
Showing an autobiography, or the entire history of rock music, or the invention of the Avant Garde.
Higher iTunes prices mean slower sales →
It’s almost like the most successful online music store knew more about selling music than the record companies.
Cephalophore →
“A cephalophore (from the Greek for “head-carrier”) is a saint who is generally depicted carrying his or her own head” How did people find things out before Wikipedia? I forget.
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thomyk Podcast 62: Flower →
In which Thom and Michael are even grouchier than usual, and complain about practically everything that has crossed their paths in the last week. It’s worth sticking with it though, because once you get past that bit, they talk about cephalophores, Mesrine, Nowhere Boy, the Kinetica Art Fair, and their recent gaming experiences.
If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be... →
Paul Buchheit, lead developer on Gmail points out that if you do a few features amazingly well, then the absolute number of features doesn’t matter. Which is what the tech geeks can’t understand…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-7) →
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (24)
The National (16)
The Rural Alberta Advantage (11)
Coldplay (6)
Girls (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Chris Applegate on the state of politics →
And the fact our two political parties are nigh-on indistinguishable. He makes some excellent points.
iPhone wallpapers by Glennz Tees →
The site also has great t-shirts of course, but these wallpapers are really great, and free!
Adam Lisagor also gets what makes the iPad at the... →
Yeah, what he said.
When policy is based on made up nonsense →
Another great post on Five Chinese Crackers, this time on Munir Hussein and how wrong the media and the politicians have got pretty much everything.
Mike Monteiro on the iPad and the future of... →
People “want things to work most of the time, and be easy to fix when they don’t. And if the process by which it happens is “magic” they are totally cool with that.”