TubeClan - An Intelligent YouTube!

My mate John Buckman has started a new website - TubeClan.  The idea is very simple - it features the best videos from YouTube, edited by John and Jan.  I’ve always found YouTube to be a frustrating experience - yes, there are some great nuggets there, but a whole lot of drek, too.  TubeClan carefully [...]

"One Of Us… Was Nuts"

Having just listened to Lewis Black’s excellent autobiography, I’m a recent convert to his  laconic humor…

The Vista Upgrade

Still in my let-me-entertain-you mode, here’s another parody that I find delightful, and oh so pungent.

Gravitational Humor

This is such a sweetly humorous parody from the BMJ.  I spent years ploughing through medical journals and so much of this is absolutely spot-on.  It deserves to become a classic.

Liber Facerum Delenda Est

My friend and IT consultant Ajay tells me that, in many of the companies he visits, FaceBook is running constantly on employees machines - sometimes hidden by a spreadsheet or Word document, but basically - it’s 9-5 FaceBook, with a smattering of work to hide the tracks.
This is confirmed by a recent survey which estimates [...]

Aquatic Heresy

In the world of the underwater gardener, the name Takashi Amano is sacrosanct. His god-like creations are the envy of aquarists everywhere. The guy is so famous he’s even had a shrimp named after him (which, incidentally, I’ve bred -no mean feat). Here is a typical Amano layout:

And here are lots more.
They [...]

Truckamerarderie

Several people have pointed out that Hiob’s Truck Cam referenced below hasn’t been working for a few days (guess Hiob needs time off over Christmas, too).  Pleased to say that the link is now working.  Additionally, for your vicarious trucking pleasure, why not consider:

TruckBuddy’s Cam
Trucking Webcam Watch
Over The Road

FaceBook - the CIA conspiracy?

Assessing the mood of blogland this morning, I would say that the tide is definitely turning against FaceBook. It will be a slow exodus, but I predict we’ve seen FaceBook’s best days. Check back with me in 24 months to see.
Meantime, here’s an interesting summary of a story that been circulating for some [...]

FaceBook Part Deux

Just to amplify on the previous post.
Blogger Robert Scoble was running a script on FaceBook to collect the names, email addresses and birthdays of his friends.  This is hardly a high crime and misdemeanour, is it?  I’d say wanting to put your friends’ details into your own Microsoft Outlook address book, rather than have them [...]

FaceBook ‘Fessions

I confess - I’m a  lousy FaceBooker.  I don’t log in enough, I don’t respond to join requests enough, I certainly don’t keep my activities well enough logged, and I don’t join in all the latest and greatest apps.  It’s a wonder I have any friends left at all.
Thing is, I’ve never really been able [...]

Keep On Truckin’ In ‘08!

A very Happy New Year to all my readers… and here’s just the way to celebrate it, riding shotgun with moustachioed Polish-American trucker Hiob, as he broadcasts live from his 18-wheeler all across America! Personally, I think Truck Cams are going to be big in ’08!

Call Me Sentimental, But…

Crewmember deaths by shirt color

This is why I love Trekkies.  Who else would do this?  I think the lesson of wearing red shirts is quite clear.

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

Many scientists say the threat has been overblown. [Chief executive of Synthetic Genomics, J. Craig] Venter notes that his synthetic genomes are spiked with special genes that make the microbes dependent on a rare nutrient not available in nature.
Oi!!!  J. Craig Venter!!! Did you not see JURASSIC PARK???
“I’ll tell you the problem [...]

Jews’ Subway Hero A Muslim

I like this news story from my namesake – it’s heart warming.

The Future Is Here.

News From Doppelgängerland

This is what our hive mind of Peter Cox has been up to in the last few hours…
Media analyst Peter Cox said Black came across as arrogant the minute he stepped foot in Australia. “To me he was an intellectual wanker. He tried very hard to sound much smarter than he was.”
CHUCK IN AIR RAGE [...]

Silhouettes and Shillelaghs

The hominid Peter Cox

Fantastic party last night to celebrate children’s publisher Egmont’s expansion into the US market. Egmont is a wonderful publisher, and are well ahead of the pack in terms of their ethical business practices, particularly with regard to their environmental impact - something of growing concern to many of my authors and indeed [...]

Stumped!

How do they do this? I’m utterly mystified! Please, gentle reader, enlighten me…

Vegan Thanksgiving

So, unbelievers and infidels, you thought that we vegans had a miserable time at Thanksgiving, did you? Let me show you the error of your ways! This was our menu last night:

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Welcome:

Rosemary Ale
Fresh Organic French Walnuts

Starter:

Sorrel Soup
Sourdough Bread

Main:

3-Grain Medley of Quinoa, Brown Basmati & Minnesota Wild Rice
Roasted Orkney Red [...]

Madeleine McCann/Laura Palmer

Watching last night’s Panorama program on the disappearance of four year-old Madeleine McCann, I became aware at least twice that the program makers were using, as a soundtrack , the haunting theme that composer Angelo Badalamenti produced for David Lynch’s television epic Twin Peaks.
Lynch’s series, as you may remember, deals with an FBI agent’s attempt [...]

The War on Boyhood

Tonight’s “Panorama” programme discloses that thousands of British children with “behavioural problems” are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs with dangerous side effects.
The powerful tranquillisers, designed to treat psychosis and schizophrenia in adults, are often being used to calm children who are simply “hyperactive”.
The situation is even worse in the States (and it will get worse here [...]

L’été se meurt…

It’s clearly Autumn here in London town. two photos from Green Park, just off Piccadilly…

Running On Empty

I mentioned the concept of “Peak Oil” – which is getting more mainstream media coverage now – in a earlier post.  Here, not for the statistically faint-hearted, is an interesting debate on exactly where we are now (no-one can be certain) and where we might be in a few short years.  This latest statistical work [...]

Neat Xmas Present?

Using the power of the internet, Kiva is a website that lets you loan money (very small amounts of money by Western standards) to small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the [...]