The dictionary defines mania as “an abnormal compulsion” such as Robert Shields who kept a virtual minute by minute diary of everything he did for 25 years (until he died from a heart attack). In it he recorded everything he and his wife did, everything he ate, the medical drugs he took, compulsive measurement of…

alobear

to see Flushed Away today. Couldn’t have been more different to Happy Feet. Never moralising or preaching, never simplistic and, bonus, actually funny! Worked excellently on not one, not…

Thanks again for everyone that bought me great xmas presents. Please don’t feel you have to get me anything for my birthday but if you do please bare in mind I have enough clothes and ornaments now. :-)

If you’re looking for ideas (and again please don’t feel you have to) there’s always Oxfam Unwrapped.

Iraq Study Group Reaches Concensus — as the US starts it’s wind up to withdrawing from Iraq it needs to people to say it’s the best thing to do.

In a similar vein — Bush holds urgent meeting with Iraqi PM and White House on defensive as US media breaks taboo to declare conflict ‘civil war’.

Meanwhile in this…

Keith Olbermann totally nails Newt Gingrich.
After that some light comic relief: If sex required legal consent.

Interesting site on books and the future of same. If, in the long long run, most books go online does that mean that most will become wikibooks? Probably not the case for most fiction (except to fix errors or to providen retcon) but for non-fiction? Possibly…

siroswold

I will say “Yes of course. He is The Plum Eater”.

Due to the fall in the US dollar vs world currencies and the rising price in metals the US government has had to make it illegal to melt down coinage as for the first time the base metal is worth more than the face value.

The next step in the good fight against crime of the next step towards “papers please!”…

Rumsfeld: US failing in Iraq as if things couldn’t get worse for the American administration given the news of state of Iraq now it emerges via the NYT the Donald Rumsfeld was writing about the bad and worsening state of that country in writing to the White House just before he was sacked.

The…

All in all a good, if short, day (I was in at midday and out by 4pm). Started off with the customary wander round — good to see Andy all dressed up running the new Victoriana. I picked up a copy of the extremely amusing War on Terror the Boardgame and a few other cheap bits and pieces. 

At 2 I…

Today in Borders, Charing Cross

Today in Borders, Charing Cross 
Originally uploaded by Dave Durant.

Did you know that up until 1951 you could still be arrested and jailed in the UK for being a witch.

Why it’s hard to buy gifts for friends — basically if you think you know people really well you don’t put in as much effort when picking something for them.

Poly Toynbee hits it on the nail about…

While browsing in Borders today I saw the following books: The Book of General Ignorance by Stephen Fry (borders #1 best seller apparently), The End of the Question Mark and Why Don’t Penguin’s Feet Freeze?. This lead me to thinking — there has been a big thing made of books which…

My mass loan protest placard 
Originally uploaded by Dave Durant.

lareinemisere and I had a fun and meaningful time at the December Mass Loan Protest meeting in Parliament Square last night. This picture is my banner — a number of photos I took can be found in this Flickr stream

Since there is some slim chance it might start a debate…

UK Home Secretary John Reid has urged a ban on artificial images of child abuse, including cartoons.

Now, there are very much two points of view that can be expressed on this and I’m not sure which is stronger. On the one hand…