Monthly Archives: February 2004

Paths to Otherwhere, by James Patrick Hogan. I knew nothing of this author until I had a bizarre Guinness-fuelled conversation with him in Dublin last September. Though the style is a little bald, the ideas are great – scientists research … Continue reading →

FFS, everyone knows that bugging is what intelligence agencies do. I thought Boutros Boutros Ghali was surprisingly good on this point on Radio 4 this morning: yes, it’s annoying, yes, it’s against international law (as is all espionage, which doesn’t … Continue reading →

I first heard of Boris Trajkovski when I was being briefed for my democratisation job in Bosnia in early 1997. I was hired at the same time as a gay conservative Canadian called Mark, who was setting up a similar … Continue reading →

A good three inches of snow fell last night and was still falling this morning. Gerlinde, our au pair, went out first thing to catch a bus and came back in again after twenty minutes, no bus having appeared. We … Continue reading →

The Meeting of the Waters by Caiseal Mór – Celtic fantasy, but not of the highest order; the last of my current batch for infinity plus.

It seems that President Trajkovski of Macedonia is missing in a plane crash, along with most of his staff. I’m devastated. He was probably the only current head of state I could describe as a personal friend, and I also … Continue reading →

The infamous Pan-Albanianism report has finally been published. OK, so the conclusion is unexciting, but my vital (and I think original) observation stands: The Kosovo Liberation Army and the National Liberation Army only started to gain popular support in Kosovo … Continue reading →

(via ) suggests stiriking back at the Mel Gibson comment spammers thus: The Passion of The Christ. Trailers. Good Website. Protesting Gibson’s Passion Lacks Moral Legitimacy. I like it.

Crumbs, I’m feeling lousy. But the pan-Albanian paper is lurching towards publication today so I feel a need to stick around the office for the inevitable last-minute hitches…

As ever, Dan Savage has unconventional but sensible commentary.

March is going to be a hectic month. 29 Feb – leave for Paris. 1 Mar – conference in Paris, fly overnight to Washington. 2 Mar – conference in Washington. 3 Mar – meetings in Washington. 4 Mar – more … Continue reading →

If you’re wondering how come I’ve read so many books in the last couple of days, I’ve been in bed sniffling and feeling sorry for myself, and getting through my “to read” pile. Anyway, this entry isn’t a review, nor … Continue reading →

9) Worlds That Weren’t, by Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams. This was the most extravagant of my many book purchases in London last week, at £16.50, and to be honest I would have preferred to … Continue reading →

8) Ilium by Dan Simmons – billed as one of the big books of 2003, indeed 570 pages and a grand storyline including literary cyborgs from the moons of Jupiter, Eloi-like humans living a carefree life on the far-future Earth, … Continue reading →

The claim that the MMR jab for children could lead to autism has now been recanted by the journal that published the original research, on the grounds that the doctor who carried out the study was being paid by supporters … Continue reading →

7) Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry, by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch (see also the website) “the definitive guide to one of Eastern Europe’s most overlooked destinations.” “Once known only by war historians and Soviet drug … Continue reading →

I dreamt that a former colleague had written a libellous article about me, and that I was trying to sort this out at the same time as transporting my own family and some minor princelings to the Dutch royal wedding … Continue reading →

My first ever visit to the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia was back in 1997, when I did a ten day tour for my then employers doing trainings for political party activists in various provincial towns. The other imported trainer, … Continue reading →

6) Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I’ve bought every William Gibson novel, though only for the writing style; I find the plot and characters completely forgettable (I know I’ve read Neuromancer five times, but can’t remember a single thing that … Continue reading →

I learnt as a teenager that 43 pence is the amount of money you leave London with, no matter how much you had when you arrived. But I’ve spent it well today. Having had some unexpected extra spare time (see … Continue reading →

So, I got up *bloody* early this morning to get to the capital city of a neighbouring country, where I was due to have a 0945 meeting with someone in the local equivalent of the Prime Minister’s office. So about … Continue reading →

Idly browsing livejournals this evening, I discovered an entire clutch of them from people at my old school. *waves* to , , , , , and . It’s rather weird to think that I left Rathmore in June ’85, before … Continue reading →

From http://www.sjgames.com/errata/illuminati/ : “There are no mistakes in Illuminati or its supplements. If something seems wrong, it’s simply because you don’t understand what’s really going on….” “Several of the Special cards have numbers in parentheses after the title. Ignore these. … Continue reading →

I dreamt I was in America, and for some reason had accidentally exchanged my Palm Pilot for a much nicer one belonging to someone else – I wasn’t sure who but thought it might be the Brussels correspondent of the … Continue reading →

Is my Blog HOT or NOT?

Don’t quite know what to make of this: Advanced Big 30 Personality Test Results Sociability |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Gregariousness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Assertiveness ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Activity Level ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Excitement-Seeking ||||||||||||||| 50% Enthusiasm ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Extroversion ||||||||||||||||||||| 65% Trust |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Morality … Continue reading →

For those who haven’t seen it: http://www.livejournal.com/users/wordweaverlynn/139933.html

http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/Static/author/authorprofile.asp?searchfor=nicholaswhyte%40hotmail.com&searchdate=12%2F31%2F2003

Check out Jonathan Cowie’s con reports.

The infamous paper on pan-Albanian nationalism is at last off my desk and into the next stage of the publication cycle. It’s been hanging around my neck since I started this job in May 2002. The basic problem was that … Continue reading →