Two exciting data points

#1: I'm the top hit on Google Hong Kong for "senior accounting partner glamorous life". Hurrah! (note: I'm not a senior accounting partner, despite my glamorous life). #2: a right-wing nutcase (with the amusing trait of pretending not to be right-wing, which is easier to do if you oppose extra-judicial punishment beatings) is trying to … Continue reading Two exciting data points

New social dilemmas of our time #232

What do you do when someone who you think, but aren't sure, was the older brother of your classmate at primary school (who you haven't seen in 15 years) gets horribly murdered in a gangland shooting? Asking on Friends Reunited seems rather inappropriate - indeed, given the utter lack of relevance to my actual life, … Continue reading New social dilemmas of our time #232

In which the ‘exciting content’ meter hits a new low

Accounting isn't a topic of wide general interest. Nonetheless, accounting professor Prem Sikka's CIF piece on the International Accounting Standards Board is one of the more bizarre and surreal things that I've ever read. The point of International Accounting Standards is to ensure comparability of accounts of companies that report their financial results in different … Continue reading In which the ‘exciting content’ meter hits a new low

The system isn’t the problem

From the BBC website's article on this year's A-level results (yes, I know - we're always first with the news here): Twin sisters Tania and Mahua Bhaduri from West Malling, Kent, both got five grade As. But unlike her sister, Tania has not got a university place. Their father, Dr Bim Bhaduri, said his daughter … Continue reading The system isn’t the problem

Booze and weddings

I've got a new piece on the Sharpener, which I appear to have annexed (if anyone, especially Sharpener contributors, fancies contributing to the Sharpener, then by all means go ahead). It's about the latest bizarre Youth Gone Feral moral panic, and how we really shouldn't worry about That Sort Of Thing. Also, if anyone tries … Continue reading Booze and weddings

Possibly I think about bad 80s pop too much

From a piece on feminist attitudes to pornography: Also, we always tend to worry about blue-collar dudes knocking one off over Zoo in factory toilets. What about the way people like Sade might be taught in lecture theatres, for instance? To my shame, my first thoughts on reading this paragraph were: 1) how the hell … Continue reading Possibly I think about bad 80s pop too much

How journalism works (part n of n^x)

Do you remember the Terrible Story of Lawless British Youth from last year, of the Evil Callous Teens who squished bowling alley technician Ferdinand Dela Cruz to death by chucking a ball at the machine he was working on, triggering the mechanism? Some months later following an inquest, it turns out that the poor bloke … Continue reading How journalism works (part n of n^x)

Indians and drugs

It's not especially surprising to see a BBC article that looks at the start of a potential major positive in a country's economic position, and then gets the consequences utterly wrong (this isn't particularly having a go at the BBC for being leftie - the Times, Telegraph and Daily Wail are equally economically illiterate at … Continue reading Indians and drugs

Happy Cyril’s Day

Today is the feast day of Saint Cyril, who baptised the Slavs and invented an amusingly incomprehensible alphabet. Nice one, Cyril. What's that? You say he's not the only saint whose feast day is today? You're right: it's also the feast day of Cyril's brother Methodius. I wonder why it got called the Cyrillic alphabet … Continue reading Happy Cyril’s Day