At last! I have got round to the top ten. Was it worth it? Probably not. Next (i.e. this) year, I am only doing the top 20, I swear… 10. Hanne Hukkelberg — Rykestrasse 68 A neat album of playfully experimental jazzy folky songs. The interesting but subtle use of found sounds makes Rykestrasse 68 […]
Electoral reform: a different answer
A few weeks ago I attended a talk by Eric Maskin, who this year was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory. Eric Maskin seems to be quite an interesting person. He lives in a house that was once occupied by Albert Einstein. I imagine that […]
Optimism
Scots are dizzy today. Everyone seems to believe that the Scotland football team will be able to beat the World Champions today. Of course, it’s very possible. Scotland has a tendency to do well against stellar opposition. One of the earliest Scotland results I can remember is when they drew with the Netherlands in Euro […]
Could more adverts be a good thing?
Ofcom has said that it is thinking about letting television stations broadcast more adverts. Ofcom are considering allowing nine minutes of advertising per hour. Currently an average of seven minutes per hour is allowed, although a maximum of twelve minutes in any one clock hour is permitted. Longrider is a libertarian but reacts with horror […]
Broadcasters should now be biased if they want to be
The media is changing very quickly, and there are a lot of difficult issues that have to be sorted out. With the massive (and still growing, maybe even still accellerating) success of blogging, podcasting and vlogging, the boundaries between the mainstream media and the pamphleteers are becoming ever-more blurred. This week Michael Grade wondered about […]
Ohh, so that’s how memes start!
As Chris Applegate says, this was absolutely screaming out to be a meme. Jawbox has done it aswell. But I refrained from calling it a meme in my post because I didn’t want to be responsible for starting one. Looks like I’m getting the blame for it anyway. Uhh, it was his fault! No, his! […]
5–0 at half time
5–0 at half time. And Scotland usually embarrass themselves against the Faroe Islands. This is just as well — we need all the goals we can get when, as Garry notes, we have a World Cup quarter finalist and both World Cup finallists in our group. And only two go through.
Goodbye to Montoya and Montagny
The United States Grand Prix was Juan Pablo Montoya’s last. He decided to move to Nascar — ridiculously boring stock car oval racing in the States — after no decent long-term opportunities within Formula 1 emerged. His team boss Ron Dennis dumped him immediately, and Pedro de la Rosa will take his place for the […]
I know next to nothing about football
…but I know that you shouldn’t step on somebody else’s nuts. Sorry. Err. I know next to nothing about football, but I listen to people who do know stuff about football. And I was told this. Germany’s players are too young and mediocre, and Klinsmann is an unproven manager Italy’s team is made up of […]
The big World Cup debate
I always quite look forward to the World Cup, but when it actually comes along I usually don’t pay as much attention to it as I expected. But on the 31st of May 2006, I can say that I am looking forward to the World Cup. Of course, here in Scotland the big debate is: […]