I was sad to read that Frank Sidebottom — or Chris Sievey, his real name — died today. I have vague memories of him being on television when I was very young, and it was a joy to rediscover him when he made his comeback four or five years ago. He never returned to the […]
Scarce resources of the social media age
There is something about the way that economists think that makes them different. Sometimes this makes them downright brilliant. Other times it makes them complete outcasts. I often enthuse about the paradox of voting — the phenomenon whereby economists struggle to explain why people vote. But when I talk about it to anyone else, the […]
Walkers crisps — a miscellany of moans
Limited edition crisps Walkers’ limited edition crisps are marketing genius, but culinary crap. Am I the only one to have noticed that Walkers just wheel out the same flavours over and over again? The only difference is the names. From the current World Cup series, I have definitely had ‘French garlic baguette’ some time before. […]
In praise of human politicians
I see that The Scotsman has again been trying to wring another story out of a politician’s use of Twitter. This time it is Jo Swinson exposing her ignorance about football. As she was overwhelmed by members of the Tartan Army at a railway station, Ms Swinson got out her BlackBerry, logged on to her […]
Meme: Where I was when…
Sorry to make my first post for a couple of weeks a meme. I was much busier than I expected last week, and with a grand prix this week my blogging activities were focussed on vee8. I’ll still be busy this week but Steven Hill has tagged me in a meme and these are quick […]
Final thoughts on Glasgow East
Well, I say “final thoughts”, but really I mean “first and only thoughts” because this is the first time I’ve actually managed to find the time and motivation to write about tomorrow’s Glasgow East by-election. It’s difficult to know what I am hoping for. The party I am most sympathetic towards — the Lib Dems […]
The most biased article about Lewis Hamilton I have ever read
And that’s saying something! And would you credit it, it was by ITV-F1. WHY LEWIS IS TAKING THE FLAK, the headline screams, stomping its feet. The article by Mark Hughes (who is normally one of the more sensible ITV-F1 people) starts as it means to go on, by taking a true event and completely twisting […]
F1 coverage to get its much-needed boost?
As the 2007 Formula 1 season approaches (only a week to go, wheee!), there is only one question on everybody’s lips: Is the television coverage going to improve? I am not talking about ITV’s coverage. Although we would all prefer there not to be any commercial breaks and would like to believe that there is […]
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.