Quentin had an unfortunate accident. He wanted to check a word, so went to take down the OED (he doesn’t say which edition, so I’m guessing it was the wonderful two-volume Shorter Oxford) from a shelf over his desk. But the book fell on his PowerBook and did a good deal of damage. Moral of the story: keep the OED on the desk!
This is not a cat
I know — I’m beginning to sound like Magritte. But this is a clever bird-scarer created by friends to stop feathered fiends frustrating their attempts to re-seed the lawn. Having magnifying glasses for the eyes is a really nice touch, don’t you think.
What music, Mum?
Photographed at a concert recently. This kid had his back to the orchestra from beginning to end. Reminded me of the famous description of a psychiatrist as “someone who goes to Les Folies Bergeres and watches the audience”. Photographed with the unobtrusiveness that only an M-series Leica can provide.
Trendy appliances often least reliable
Well, well… According to this Guardian report,
Dyson vacuum cleaners, Smeg dishwashers and Hoover washing machines may be the more fashionable appliances on the domestic scene, but they are also the most likely to break down, the consumers’ magazine Which? says today. Owners have to have them repaired more often than those who opt for less trendy brands, according to the experiences of nearly 15,000 Which? readers who responded to a survey. People are buying into “fashion” brands for their homes, despite them proving far more unreliable, the researchers say.
So I’ll stick with our boring old Miele, then.
You can fool some of the people…
… but it’s getting harder with all those pesky Blogs around. Intriguing story from this morning’s New York Times:
Clear Channel, thought by its critics to be the best representative of the creeping corporate weaseldom that has brought on the ruination of commercial radio, tried to dupe radio listeners in Akron, Ohio, by posing as an anticorporate pirate radio station.
Via some audio trickery, Clear Channel made it sound as though pirate signals from “Radio Free Ohio” were bleeding into several of the other stations it owns. The “pirate” signals, and a Web site set up to promote the new station, lashed out at corporate radio.
Suspicious, someone using the handle “Turbo Ninja” looked up the Web site registration for radiofreeohio.org, discovered it was owned by Clear Channel, and posted the findings to the message boards on the Web site of the independent station WOXY.
“They’re ripping corporate radio as a means of encouraging people to listen to a slightly different kind of corporate radio,” Turbo Ninja wrote.
The posting was picked up by several blogs, and in turn by The New York Times, which quoted a Clear Channel executive saying, “There’s a hole in the market here and we’re going to fill it.”
That hole is “progressive talk,” a notion that sent Carrie MacLaren reeling. She runs the blog stayfreemagazine.org, one of the first to publicize what Clear Channel was up to. “Progressive talk,” she wrote. “Yes, I will say that again: (Radio Free Ohio) is to be a progressive talk station! Now if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll go shove an icepick in my ear.”
Skinny dipping
A sign in the window of a Dingle pub. ‘Ceol’ is the Irish for song or music. There is, however, a lively etymological debate about ‘craic’. It is conventionally taken to mean fun and/or bonhomie (often fuelled by alcohol). But some authorities hold that it derives from ‘ag buaileadh craiceann’ or ‘beating skin’ — a reference to “a highly private inter-personal (and usually inter-gender) activity which tends to promote mutual enjoyment, and sometimes progeny”. Er, I couldn’t possibly comment.
Feeding time
Explains why I don’t like goldfish. They remind me of venture capitalists.
Hot Lines to the Almighty
Hilarious story in The Register…
A Cardiff vicar has addressed the problem of falling congregations by offering his flock a quiet wireless hotspot in which they can seek the meaning of the word salvation on Google while chewing the fat via email with Pope Benny 16.
Keith Kimber, of St John’s in Cardiff city centre, has sold his soul to Cardiff Council and BT Openzone to acquire the wirless technology. Before inking the mephistophelean technopact, Rev Kimber was unable to access the city’s wireless services due to his church’s four-foot-thick walls. Now, however, he boasts a wireless node within the body of the House of God itself.
Said the good Reverend: “The church has to move with the times and I wanted to make St John’s a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles.”
Google shares rise on new price target
Shares in Google rose $13.24 to $290.51 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. Any bets on when it hits $400? And to think of those Wall Street types who thought it was over-valued at $85!
Gorgeous George
Nicely balanced column by Gerard Baker in the Times about George Galloway’s bravura performance before the US Senate. On the one hand…
When mortals appear before Senate panels, they are expected to show proper deference to these lawgivers of the American republic. But while senators may consider themselves Solons, Pericles they most assuredly are not. Going through life in an impregnable carapace of sycophancy is agreeable, no doubt, but as Marie Antoinette discovered, it does not tend to sharpen one’s skills in public argument. So when a feisty member such as Mr Galloway shows up in the midst of these august figures, the effect is a little like a character from a Damon Runyon novel let loose among the Gatsbys.
The average MP, schooled in the knockabout tactics of the House of Commons, is far better equipped to score points and persuade undecided minds. And Mr Galloway’s performance duly earned him some rave reviews, not least from startled American journalists who wouldn’t dare treat their betters this way.
On the other hand…
But forgive me if I don’t participate in the adulation. As I watched, it wasn’t a grudging respect for the perfectly tailored and coiffed tribune of the masses that filled me, but a wave of nausea. His testimony left me with a renewed understanding of just how uniquely repellent Mr Galloway is.