All the content from the long-defunct Sharpener group blog (formerly at thesharpener.net, before pirates stole the domain name) is now available at sharpener.johnband.org. The formatting's basic, and categories have been lost; this may improve in future. That was the easy-ish task, building a new WordPress 3.3.1 site based on a fairly arbitrary selection of obsolete … Continue reading Fans of Sharpeners will like this
Banditry
If you're seeing this, then my server migration was absolutely gangbusters-awesome, God's in his heaven, and all's right with the world. The Sharpener and SBBS projects may be slightly more challenging, but they are on the way. If you don't know what the last sentence means, then I salute your wisdom in spending the mid-to-late … Continue reading That worked remarkably well, all things considered
Trivia only a day later than promised; that's practically on time. Vaguely colonial-themed. Question 1 is for non-Sydneysiders only. Leave your answers in comments; winner gets some kind of actual or virtual prize. 1a) Which sport is played most frequently at the Sydney Football Stadium? 1b) Which sport is played most frequently at the Sydney … Continue reading A quiz it is
Governments in both England and Scotland are planning minimum-pricing regimes for alcohol. These are a terrible idea, not only if you're a liberal, but even on their own terms. There are three main issues associated with minimum pricing, all of which are conflated by minimum price proponents (this article is a good example of their … Continue reading Why minimum alcohol pricing is a terrible idea
Via Tim, I find a very cool article on the Aussies who worked in Melbourne under Bletchley Park's command, breaking the Pacific Axis's codes during WWII [*]. Very cool, and - unlike the (shamefully underfunded, GIVE THEM MONEY) museum at Bletchley, not even remembered at all. Should be. This obviously gets me onto the history … Continue reading This little thing? Oh, it doesn’t matter; here you go
So, you're a lifelong civil servant. You're quite competent, and you're amazingly good at tolerating people who aren't, especially your political 'masters'. You've spent over 30 years in the service, and you've risen to be in charge of collecting tax and that. You're well aware that a lot of companies are headquartered in the UK, … Continue reading Being for the retirement of Mr Hartnett
Shannon, who is aces, just came up with the best mashup concept ever. Civ + sex devices + Lulu + Lady Popular = "No, fuck YOU. This bling does look fabulous against my fur, because I am the queen of the Zulus, and you're still fucking an analog blow-up doll."
While we're still on UK-nomenclature, this article (written by an American for a British-based international magazine) has one of the oddest phrasings I've seen in a while: The An-124 will likely be a rare sight in Kinston as Spirit plans to typically deliver its fuselage panels by boat to France, while its wing spars, also … Continue reading Deeply odd UK usage
Just because people seem confused on all this (for some reason). Before 1535, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland were legally separate countries. Following the English conquest of Ireland in the 12th century and of Wales in the 13th, England, Ireland and Wales had a single ruler, who was styled King of England and Lord of … Continue reading It’s another exciting British constitutional history post. Hurrah!
My bankster buddy Dan has an excellent post on Crooked Timber about how the venal British middle class are basically blaming the disaster they created, caused and voted for, on the small subset of the venal British middle class who are actually bankers - rather than on their own stupid and venal decisions. If you … Continue reading This, this, all of this all of the time