I am a breezy person who likes to say yaka-wow.

What?

Well, there's a typo in Baroness Greenfield's latest puff (or puff-adder?) piece in The Times, and it's turning in to a memeOn the whole Royal Institution debacle, I note briefly ( Read more... )

So this morning it emerged that Radio 1, in accordance with its anti-homophobic bullying policy, had blanked out the word "faggot" in the Pogues' tired old Fairytale of New York (and also "slut ( Read more... )

Am I the only person who's heard that there's been some spectacular elections in Poland, where the ruling Evil Party, headed by a pair of Evil Twins, has been ousted by a liberal opposition party on the biggest turnout since the fall of Communism and by a majority that's startled pretty much everyone? And the vast armies of ex-pat Poles living in ( Read more... )

There's these adverts all over the place for Tax Credits, with the general message "Tell us everything, or things Will Go Bad For You". This is obviously a fixing-the-wrong-problem attempt by the Government to try to stop the flood of disaster caused by their fundamentally wrong-headed policy. And tactically it was never going to be a good idea ( Read more... )

The whole kidney transplant reality TV show shock horror thing has been done to death all over the place.

Me, I'm not surprised. I knew that TV had surpassed my poor power to add or detract through satire when I discovered that Temptation Island was not - as I had thought was obviously the case - a spoof, but an actual commissioned show that ( Read more... )

Via BoingBoing, I learned the following news:A Japanese-led research team said it had made a seeing, hearing and smelling robot that can carry human beings and is aimed at helping care for the country's growing number of elderly.


( Read more... )

So, Mark Oaten has not only pulled out of the race to replace Charles Kennedy as leader of the LibDems, but has resigned from the LibDem front bench because he's had an affair with a bloke.
( The missing B-word )

1. Yesterday, Radio 4 (and also The Scotsman some time ago) made a slip about the now-defunct Bill to let paramilitary fugitives from justice return without facing trial. They talked about "parliamentary fugitives" instead, which seems revealing ( Read more... )

I met an old friend at the weekend whom I'd not seen since September 11, 2001. It was very good to see him. And happily it looks like the date of this last meeting won't stay stuck in my mind indefinitely - plenty going on (e.g. Charles Kennedy finally resigning, cyclists mown down, Ariel Sharon still stuck on the roof and won't come down) but ( Read more... )

Radio 3 is broadcasting A Bach Christmas until Christmas: the entire works of J. S. Bach, continuously.

This is easily the best thing Radio 3 has done since it was the Third Programme, and quite possibly before that.

It seems churlish to mention quibbles with such a cornucopia of wonderfulness, but I will anyway:
( Ungrateful whinging and moaning ... )