Archive for December, 2006

Lost Cosmonaut

Friday, December 29th, 2006

Debbie bought me the book Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Kalder for Christmas. It appears to available in three editions already, despite being first published in 2006…
Daniel Kalder is a Scotsman living in Moscow, and in this book he decides to become an “anti-tourist”, deliberately visiting mundane places for their authenticity (no doubt he would […]

Hartnup.net quiz of the year winner

Friday, December 29th, 2006

Entries to the quiz of the year could hardly be called a “torrent”. Even “trickle” is something of an exaggeration. OK, there were two entries.
I’ve already posted the answers. Both entrants could be docked marks for trivial deviations from the model answers — “meaning of life” instead of “purpose of life”; specifying “baby Jaron” […]

Hartnup.net quiz of the year answers

Friday, December 29th, 2006

The deadline for the quiz of the year is long past.
Here are the answers: the winner will be announced in another post.

Jan

Phil was thinking of what he was having for dinner that night. What did Hayley guess he was thinking about?
The purpose of life

Feb

What is Leamington’s answer to New York’s Central Park?Beauchamp Square

Mar

How might […]

Insult

Friday, December 29th, 2006

I don’t follow cricket — I don’t really understand it — but the headline in today’s Guardian sport section caught my eye:
“Empty Flintoff embodies England’s impotence”
Blimey. I wonder if his mum will be cutting that one out for the “Andrew’s press scrapbook”?

Rod Liddle on Atheism

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

Last night I watched Channel 4’s “The Trouble with Atheism”:
“Rod Liddle argues against those who turn to atheism for a rational and moderate approach to today’s problems, and says that atheism has high priests and dogmatic beliefs, just like fundamentalist religion.”
(Repeated 2:20am next Friday morning)
As I watched it my blood gently worked up to […]

My career as a video editor begins

Monday, December 18th, 2006

Some footage from yesterday’s canal adventure — accompanied by some glitch hip hop…

You won’t see much more of this sort of thing for a while: my camera’s broken

Busy weekend

Monday, December 18th, 2006

Cor, what an active few days.
On Thursday, the office decamped to The South for a GXS party in a marquee near Hampton Court, and much boozy fun was had by all.
On Friday, Gary and I didn’t really feel up to a full scale Happy Friday, but the HF members gathered for a quiet curry […]

Ben Goldacre on statistics and prediction

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

While we’re on Guardian columns, Saturday’s Bad Science column by Ben Goldacre was particularly good.
Normally, this column takes pot shots at easy (but deserving) targets, but this week he explains a fiddly bit of maths with remarkable clarity, and lends real insight into a topical issue. Read it!

Arab countries and their school curriculum

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Michael Kinsley casually writes in today’s Guardian:

“No doubt many Israelis have racist attitudes towards Arabs, but the official philosophy of the government is quite the opposite, and sincere efforts are made to, for example, instill humanitarian and egalitarian attitudes in children. That is not true, of course, in Arab countries, where hatred of Jews […]

iPod, improving

Monday, December 11th, 2006

I have spent way to much of my precious time picking holes in the iPod.
On Saturday (after watching Leamington scrape an FA Vase victory away against Croydon, then getting a meal in London waiting for our discount train tickets to become valid), we passed the Apple Store on Regent St. and popped in to […]



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