I've got a new piece up on the otherwise increasingly moribund Sharpener, about the terrifying public and press reaction - both in the UK and in Iran - that risks escalating a minor diplomatic incident into a casus belli. Hopefully sanity will prevail: ideally on both sides, but at the very least on ours...
Banditry
Dear Lenovo - Congratulations on making some of the best and most rugged laptops available; buying IBM's PC business was a good idea (even if you have been dogged by Japanese suppliers' ineptitude at battery manufacturing). However, now that your machines no longer fall under the IBM umbrella, there are a couple of bizarre Big … Continue reading An open letter to Lenovo
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
I've got a new piece up at The Sharpener on Threshers' brilliant ad campaign unfortunate voucher mistake.
George Osborne has floated a new public sector recruitment policy to be applied should the Conservatives get into power: all media advertising for government jobs will be pulled and instead a central website will be set up (at an alleged cost of £5m a year) to offer them. Given that he could be the next-but-one … Continue reading Cutting off your principles to spite the Guardian
The London Astoria is one of the capital's best-known live music venues; hundreds of groups ranging from Nirvana to the Stones have played there over the last 15 years. It's also reportedly "under threat" from property developers in sinister allegiance with the Olympics and most recently Transport for London's evil machinations. Indeed, it is true … Continue reading You have picked the wrong villain
It's been reported that the major cause for the delay in Airbus A380 deliveries is that the entertainment systems are enormously complicated, require millions of miles of cabling to be squeezed into the aircraft, and are completely different for different airlines so there's a risk of serious screw-ups if staff work on two different configuration … Continue reading Free aviation consulting
Squirrels hate chilli. So if you're planning on having a squirrel round for dinner, you might want to cancel the nut burritos. Conversely, if you're planning on eating a squirrel, you might want to add it to a green Thai curry as a final act of indignity. I was told this fact today by an … Continue reading Rodent fact
The Pine Marten breaks his summer of silence, with more historical allusions to political events. Always good to see. The Bandit doesn't, for the time being.
I've just had a fabulous holiday in ex-Yugoslavia; I'd recommend a trip to Croatia and Slovenia to anyone, with the possible exception of people I dislike. The new-found prosperity in both countries is amazing, given their past of communist stagnation and civil war - even in Slovenia, albeit briefly - as is the scenery. And … Continue reading Europeanisms