There’s a really fun game being played on the web right now. It’s called “let’s see how much we can agree with Tom Coates but still find a little something to take exception to, so that we can join in the debate without looking like yes-men.” And it’s my turn now.
Here are the rules. First, [...]

It’s not as bad as pre-planned, and certainly nothing like the almost criminal pre-prepared, but I am perplexed by First Capital Connect’s consist use of “planned engineering works”.
I just cannot understand what “unplanned engineering works” might be. Perhaps it’s when the engineers turn up and realise they’ve forgotten to bring their monkey wrenches. (In which [...]

Here it is (thanks, Dave). Enter a phrase, have a play. I stumbled on Raymond Baxter’s tag cloud, which is very nice (although they call it a “subject categories cloud”, which is fair, if a little unusual).
Can you imagine the vast cataloguing effort involved? There’s a glimpse of it here.
This is a real public service, [...]

If you thought the Internet rollercoaster had slowed down, it’s only because we’re cranking up to another big rush. This week has seen two news events which signal this. The first is that The Economist has seen this week as the right time to publish a survey of new media. The second, and much more [...]

Part 462 in an endless series. You know the Prime Minister is losing it when he spends time going over detailed figures in his monthly press conference. It’s not a big deal — indeed, the debate really should be over hard facts rather than more nebulous things — but in reality it’s a shift away [...]

Pashmina’s been to Fopp, which I know is one of Jamie’s favourite places to buy DVDs, too. I clicked on the link to find out where they’re located.
Unfortunately the people at Fopp have placed form over function. Their website is entirely Flash-based, which means it’s pretty but user-hostile to anyone but the most naive of [...]

A little walking, and one geocache found, too. Here are some photos as a reminder to city folk like me that vast swathes of the UK still haven’t been turned into luxury apartments.

Tags: malvern

Last night was the first night of Passover, so we were at family for dinner and something that might be very loosely termed prayers. A gathering of eighteen.
During the proceedings we read out the ten biblical plagues that God brought down onto the ancient Egyptians: blood, frogs, locusts, and so on. Paul said that in [...]

Lucy Mangan writes about the birth of Gywnneth and Chris’s new son, Moses:
According to babynamesworld.com, which, frankly, I regard as the oracle on such matters, Moses means “saved; child; taken from water”. One might suppose therefore that Ms Paltrow opted for a water birth, and not the favourite celebrity birthing method de nos jours, the [...]

I’ve written before about how exciting StreetCar is, and how it’s making me think about giving up my car. And then the other week my company started offering a discount on it. Now today I’ve got a leaflet through from Camden council headed “Car club: A new car on your doorstep”.
I’d not heard the phrase [...]