Monthly Archives: June 2004

Fortunately, living where I do I have no access to the UK’s Big Brother on TV, and better things to do on the internet than follow it there. But, from the little that I have picked up unintentionally from other … Continue reading →

A clique presumably being a group of people who have all friended each other. Slightly surprised and amused by this result: I am a member of 2 cliques of size 7 , , , , , , , , , … Continue reading →

I’ve been having great fun uploading all my mail archives from 2002 and 2001 onto my gmail account. Found a webpage advising how to do it from Eudora, and an actual application for Netscape. It will be a gradual process … Continue reading →

11) On Basilisk Station, by David Weber. Another book that I read on my Palm Pilot in traffic jams over the last few days, then got to an exciting bit and finished it in bed last night and over lunch … Continue reading →

Well, without doing invidious things like actually giving the full scores, the honours are equally shared between and with 11 correct answers each. Special mention to who was the only person to get the Azeri correct. Congratulations to all who … Continue reading →

10) Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord Of The Rings, by Lin Carter, updated by Adam Roberts The first of my latest review package from infinity plus. Alas, my review will not be a whole-heartedly enthusiastic one; the thirty-five years … Continue reading →

We went to McDonald’s for lunch, and the children got a nice little video game with instructions in thirty-four different languages. I was so amused by this that I’m going to turn it into a set of pages for my … Continue reading →

It is not fair to laugh at people just because their names sound funny in English. But sometimes restraint is very difficult.

9) Avonturen van een Nederbelg: Een Nederlander ontdekt België by Derk-Jan Eppink Derk-Jan Eppink is a Dutch journalist who covers Belgian politics for one of the main Flemish papers, De Standaard. He bills himself as the first Dutchman since 1830 … Continue reading →

early train to Paris aargh

I got six more. Anyone still interested?

Someone whose website I linked to from the Hugo reviews page just emailed to say that she doesn’t really read much science fiction but she would really recommend this related book called In Code by Sarah Flannery (see her review). … Continue reading →

The current speculation about the next President of the European Commission may well affect me personally, since I’d really like to get a job on the inside come the autumn. I hope it’s Peter Sutherland, who is today’s focus of … Continue reading →

The Wall Street Journal has an article about things you find in second-hand books. I can’t quite manage that but I did once find a letter from Arthur Cayley (who invented group theory) to John Couch Adams (who nearly discovered … Continue reading →

My reading habits this month have been a bit uncharacteristic. I decided to try and take a month off written sf, but have spent so long stuck in traffic jams in the morning that I read both Gather, Darkness! and … Continue reading →

I warn you, these are bad… A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.” Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one … Continue reading →

I have the usual Celtic tendency to cheer anyone who is playing against England. And also I enjoyed the hospitality of the Government of Croatia at a very fine embassy reception in Tervuren immediately before the match. But to be … Continue reading →

Via Teresa Nielsen Hayden: Interactive History from Wolverhampton Grammar School.

I got some. Want one?

Have been working hard all morning and I swear my in-tray is higher than it was when I got here. Bah.

Waiting for me this morning, to review for infinity plus: The Holy Machine, Chris Beckett; River of Gods, Ian McDonald; Newton’s Wake, Ken MacLeod; Jupiter: Ganymede Spring 2004; The Human Abstract, George Mann; Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of … Continue reading →

On the whole we love living in Belgium. But we have just been reminded how lucky we are to come from the right end of Europe. Our former au pair just dropped by. She’s Bulgarian, has been studying at Leuven … Continue reading →

My recent trip to Russia fills in a big chunk of map: Now I just need to get invited to Albania and Turkey, the two most embarrassing remaining gaps.

I’ve posted this on my web-site as it’s very long; but if you’d like to see it in livejournal format, The 2004 Hugo Nominees (fiction) A mega-meta-reviewRepeating last year’s successful effort, I have read all the Hugo fiction nominees. (And … Continue reading →

Well, I’ve had a quick browse and I’m very impressed with the diplomatic fixes that went into it. Rather than try and rig the mathematics so that the four big countries can’t just block things on their own, there is … Continue reading →

It’s Bridget’s seventh birthday today. I always find this difficult, and have done since her third birthday, just after her autism was finally diagnosed. She’s completely unaware of the concept of birthdays; for her it will be a day like … Continue reading →

I’m trying to remember the source of a quotation about a small country that looks like a mistake on the map, so much so that “you can almost hear the printer saying ‘damn’”. A friend thought it might be from … Continue reading →

Or a slight variation on it. Searching for my full name on Amazon pulls up 10 results. 7 are references to me, 1 is the 19th century New York architect Nicholas Whyte, and 1 seems to be a confusion between … Continue reading →

Bosnian arms smuggler’s excuse: “He claimed he picked up the grenades after they fell off the back of a lorry which was driving in front of him.” Yeah. right.

Come on, child, please fall asleep, I have to get up early for a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister of Georgia…