Monthly Archives: May 2005

Slept badly last night; made it into the office for two work meetings, and then came straight home after lunch and went to bed. Have emerged now, though not sure for how much longer. B has been quietly flitting around … Continue reading →

Two cartoons from the Kosovo newspapers commenting on our latest report:

First off, there’s nothing like attending an EU-sponsored conference about something almost entirely different when major apocalyptic news like this comes down the pipeline in the middle of the first night dinner. Also striking that the Parisian passers-by seemed pretty … Continue reading →

By glorious coincidence, I can wish “Happy Birthday” simultaneously to ,  and . Many happy returns.

Latest news here in Paris: ‘No’ vote on 54.5%.

Just completed a work task I had to bring home for the weekend. Whew! Now I can relax a bit – until I leave for the 1740 train to Paris…

Checking the referrer logs for my site I found several visitors who had come via the F&SF discussion board, on foot of a discussion of what sounds like a very silly story about a same-sex marriage between President Bush and Osama … Continue reading →

…for helping us out with a domestic emergency last night. Obviously you got home OK, and I hope had a good night’s sleep eventually. And “Tarzan” was a great success.

…and ties in with being Giles in the “Which Buffy character are you” meme: You Are The Wayfarer Guide“I’ll show you the way.”Your deep insight and quick wisdom never ceases to amaze those around you. You are the guiding light … Continue reading →

Here and here. He and his classmates are being fish.

Buying books on-line (thanks to ) Inappropriate logos (thanks to )

Representative Ford: If you had known that the Soviets would send Lee Harvey Oswald to live in Minsk, what would your reaction have been? Mr.Snyder (US ambassador in USSR): Serves him right. Ford: Why do you say that? Snyder: Sir, … Continue reading →

So, am just back from this rather weird conference – run by NATO and the Swedish government; I was on a panel with three foreign ministers, two members of parliament and one senior US diplomat (#3 in the State Department, … Continue reading →

I’m rather pleased about most of this:Thursday 6:00pm  The Digital Divide        Jon Courtenay Grimwood        Christopher Rowe        Don Sakers        Renee Sieber        Nicholas Whyte Are we rushing to build a web-enabled society that disenfranchises those unable or … Continue reading →

Extraordinary – I see that the white knight who has paid Robert Sheckley’s medical fees and transport home from Ukraine is a member of the Board of my employers. I’ve met him a couple of times at work things but … Continue reading →

I suspect the first of many we’ll be seeing this year, from Transitions On Line (). Also, if folks are interested, we published a new report on Uzbekistan today. Not my department, but certainly worth reading. All being well, I … Continue reading →

The ex-Prime Minister of Portugal has been appointed the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees. So my boss stays with us. Oh well, he seemed in fairly good form generally this morning, so I think I can stick it out … Continue reading →

Panel 4 – “Acting in concert in the Balkans and elsewhere – how can institutional cooperation make the world more secure?” Chair: Dimitrj Rupel, Foreign Minister of Slovenia and Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE Speakers: – Pierre Lellouche, Member of the … Continue reading →

Back from US. Stop into office to look at 300 unread emails. Now off to Sweden until tomorrow night. See you later… Edited to add: the meeting in Sweden is so secret that the government has put the entire programme … Continue reading →

6) Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross Rather interesting experience to read this so soon after Banks’ The Algebraist. Strong points of comparison and contrast between the two books, most of which I think rebound in Stross’ favour. More when I … Continue reading →

5) The Algebraist, by Iain M. Banks Excellent; long review later. Only Iron Sunrise left to read.

“Mummy, when I’m grown up I won’t live in Belgium any more – I want to live in America!”

Steph and William’s wedding: Preparing to make their vows Just married Caroline playing music (sorry for darkness) Caroline, Ken, Ian, Deirdre More Dublin folks (or at least the backs of their heads) Steph’s friend making a speech A lovely ceremony; … Continue reading →

First full day in Boston, so of course we had to go to the Boston Children’s Museum. Full of many exciting opportunities for intellectural exploration, but the only thing F was really interested in was the new big exhibition on … Continue reading →

The tasks for the day seemed simple: return the hire car from yesterday’s journey, and then go whale-watching with Boston Harbor Cruises. The first bit was achieved with no difficulty, but the bloody useless Boston Harbor Cruises had booked us … Continue reading →

A rather quiet morning as we got sorted for the journey to Boston. We got out to the Riverside Park and met up with my old friend David Feige for a pre-lunch drink. Then rapid sorting out of rental car … Continue reading →

Just pictures so far – will fill out with text later Anne and FDR F and small friend Ben Family and dinosaurs F at playground Family meal at Serendipity

4) Iron Council, by China Miéville Will write this up properly when I do my planned review of all the Hugo nominees for the website. (NB that the short fiction nominees are now all available on-line). Now on The Algebraist, … Continue reading →

We're staying on West 83rd St, so nice and handy for Central Park, basically the first place we went to explore. There are of course many things to do there, but we concentrated on the Diana Ross playground (presumably named … Continue reading →

3) David Boring, by Daniel Clowes Again, part of my effort to read the Time magazine list of 25 great graphic novels