…because you really thought you needed one of those, right? Tags: duck, specialoffers

Ken Livingstone ought be reported to the Standards Board for England. He was reported once for being verbally abusive to an Evening Standard reporter. He’s just been reported again for likening the US ambassador to “some chiselling little crook” for not paying London’s congestion charge. It’s clear to me that by being reported a second [...]

The instructions I’ve received say “Apparently, this is currently the most popular screensaver in the US. Can’t think why. If he gets stuck, just move him with your cursor.” I’m not sure it is a screensaver, but click here to see a tumbling George Bush. A quick check on Google shows that Dan of Planetdan.net [...]

On Saturday afternoon Anna received a call out of the blue. Hello, said a man, I’m from BT and you need to pay your phone bill, so could you please confirm your BT account number, the first line of your address (for security reasons) and then give me your credit card number? I’m sure some [...]

Today, the two beautiful trees outside our flat will be cut down — one silver birch, one cherry tree. The stumps will be treated to ensure they never regrow. They added a sense of texture and warmth to that tiny stretch of the street, and without them it will be emptier and harder. But they [...]

Two pages, two guides on communication. Exhibit A. Mark Liberman points to an Elmore Leonard piece on his ten rules for writing a novel. These include “Never open a book with weather” and “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip”. Exhibit B. Tom Robinson lists nine of Steve Wright‘s rules for [...]

Another month, another architectural disaster. This time it’s not a building but the memorial fountain in Hyde Park for Diana, Princess of Wales. The Guardian reports that the Commons public accounts committee found a string of management failures on the part of the beauraucrats managing the process, right from inception, though construction and on to [...]

I’m a North Londoner in my genes, but I still find Wanstead Park to be more beautiful and more dramatic than that supposed jewel in North London’s crown: Hampstead Heath. Does Hampstead Heath have anything to rival the second photo below? Does it have half the number of geocaches? Does it have the 101 bus [...]

(Oh, isn’t that such a clever title…?) Following Peter Bradshaw’s one-star review, I could have lived without seeing V for Vendetta, but by the time his review appeared it was too late — I’d already booked, after a rather lengthy battle with the Showcase’s phone system, which seems to use patented voice non-recognition software. The [...]

Heinz Kabutz has a terrific article entitled “Strategy Pattern with Generics”. There’s lots of reasons I like it, but here’s one: it demonstrates a legitimate and pretty comprehensible use of the mind-bending generics syntax MyClass<T extends MyClass<T>>. This is most commonly seen in the Enum class: Enum<E extends Enum<E>>. Thanks to Heinz, I think I [...]