Cultured Meat

Here’s are interesting idea that I’ve been predicting for decades.  I don’t think cultured meat is for me - I’ve done pretty well all my life without it - but it could well be a saner and kinder use of our food resources.  Be interesting to see if the epidemiology shows any health advantages over [...]

Rolld

You May Mock, But When They Come For You, Who’ll Be Laughing Then?

“Since trying Michael Menkin’s Helmet, I have not been bothered by alien mind control. Now my thoughts are my own. I have achieved meaningful work and am contributing to society.”
$35, and cheap at the price.

The Falafel Trail

photo credit: paulgalipeau
Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.
The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, [...]

Shock - Inhaling Pigs’ Brains Is Bad For You

Who’d have thunk it?

Grubby Virgin

OK, it’s name and shame time. I held back last time, but now I’m downright angry. The Virgin gym I’m temporarily going to is horribly grubby. I have ONCE seen the changing rooms being cleaned. NEVER seen the gym itself being cleaned. And it’s a busy place – lots of juicy standing orders flowing in [...]

Lies of the Tooth Fairy

Watching Hilary Clinton’s rally in Penacook, NH at the moment, I am again partly appalled and partly outraged by the popular American perception of the British health care system.  An audience member (I know, it’s probably rigged) has just asked Ms. Clinton about reforming the American healthcare system so that "it does not duplicate the [...]

PC Update

Hi – I’ve been really cruddy these past few days – heroic quantities of phlegm with resulting phlegmatic behaviour – seems like everyone in town has either had this or are having. Felt much better this am, then needed to go back to bed two hours later. But I’m on the mend. [...]

Alan Coren

I was so sorry to hear about Alan Coren’s death.  As luck would have it, I found myself sitting opposite him at dinner just a few weeks ago.  He’d always been a childhood “hero of wit” for me, so it was quite a thrill.  Although he smoked his way through dinner, he seemed in pretty [...]

Tony Benn’s Letter To The Home Secretary

To: The Right Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA

Dear Home Secretary,
I am writing to you as President of the STOP THE WAR COALITION, to give you advance notice that there will be a demonstration in Trafalgar Square the day Parliament meets calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq [...]

So true

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil

Is this really a shock?  Most Western interventions in Iraq for the past century have been oil-motivated.  And if, as seems likely, peak oil production has already occurred, then the world’s second-largest oil reserves automatically become a target, by fair means or foul.  It certainly explains the lack of exit strategy (we don’t plan to [...]

The Theatre of Security

Last night’s Evening Standard reported on yet another indignity that long-suffering – or is that just plain dumb? – airport passengers will have to increasingly contend with.  Security guru Bruce Schneier invented them term “theatre of security” to describe the largely meaningless, inefficient and often upsetting procedures that passengers are now routinely forced to undergo.  [...]

Chris Eubank

I know Chris Eubank, who’s just been arrested for staging a protest outside Downing Street against the Iraq war, and I’ve had the exhilarating experience of speeding round London (the narrow lanes of Mayfair, to be precise) in his gigantic Peterbilt rig.  The traffic wardens just wave and smile – Chris can park virtually anywhere [...]

White House confirms the following records destroyed in the 3rd floor fire

This would be hilarous, if it weren’t so mordant.

Jack Bauer Meets Leni Riefenstahl

I’ve always respected “24”’s taut storytelling prowess, while being seriously troubled by the proto-fascist underlying morality of the series – roughly in the same way, I suppose, as you might respond to Leni Riefenstahl’s diabolic cinematic aptitude. This week’s New Yorker carries an excellent analysis of “24” and it’s pro-torture creator. I’ve always [...]

Warrant Issued For Verizon’s Arrest

This is so cool! For anyone who has ever been dicked around (and I could use much stronger language, but there are ladies present) by a large corporation – and that must mean just about all of us at some time or other – this is very sweet justice. I hope Mr. Poodleman [...]

Bored To Death at the LBF

What a dismal list of seminars today announced for the London Book Fair.  Where are the big new ideas, the crowd-pleasers, the big sexy names, the gob-smackingly audacious subjects?  Nothing!  The list is dreary, predictable, parochial and boring.  If I didn’t have back-to-back meetings, I certainly wouldn’t go along for any of this stale fare.
The [...]

A Pink Evening

To Foyle’s Bookshop, London, last night with my client Amanda Lees, for a terrific evening comprised of two consecutive events: the AGM of the Youth Libraries Group London, followed by a evening of discussing debating and celebrating books about and for girls – sometimes described as [...]

Publishing’s Secret Vice

Gossip is the real currency of the publishing business and, for that reason, the prime source of capital for agents.  Why do you think we have so many lunches?  Certainly not for the good of our waistlines!  But herein lies a problem: the agent with a loose tongue comes quickly to be distrusted by all [...]

Caffeinated Doughnuts? Just say “No!”

DURHAM.N.C. (AP) - That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That’s what Doctor Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has come up with. Bohannon says he’s developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste of caffeine. [...]

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Very pleased to announce a new book deal for my client Martin Bell OBE to write THE TRUTH THAT STICKS:NEW LABOUR’S BREACH OF TRUST. This will become the definitive epitaph for the wasted years and broken promises that has come to symbolize Tony Blair’s legacy: Martin is no shrill polemicist, and his judgement is [...]

Mr. Garfunkel’s Reading List

First impression: wow! Second impression; isn’t there something slightly, um, OCD about keeping lists like this? I mean, what else does he keep lists about? Third impression: I consider myself well-read, but if Art and I ever got together for a cosy literary chat in some congenial watering-hole, the conversation would probably [...]

Harry Horse

Very sad news about Harry Horse and his wife, Mandy. Reading the obituary, I was struck by the means of his discovery:
“The manuscript of The Last Polar Bears arrived at Puffin Books in a beautifully manufactured parchment parcel knotted with string and covered in hand-drawn postage stamps. It looked as if it had [...]

Librarians Are Angry As Hell

Damn right!  It’s time this business got more respect… What’s next… tagging for late fines?  Over to you, dear readers…
Library Guard Shoots Reader