Monthly Archives: January 2006

Reviewed by me for Strange Horizons, here.

6) Shutterbug Follies, by Jason Little Nice little graphic novel about a girl who discovers disturbing things while working in a photography shop developing films. New York and the characters of the city are nicely portrayed. The plot, however, was … Continue reading →

Off to Kosovo now. Drive to Macedonia tomorrow. Drive back to Kosovo on Wednesday. Fly home on Thursday.

Inspired by trying to remember where http://www.yournotme.com/ is (there are 16 people called Nicholas Whyte in the UK, apparently), I’m using this entry to bookmark the following: UCL’s surname profiler, which shows Whytes of Great Britain concentrated in eastern Scotland … Continue reading →

Looking at the three candidates’ published lists of supporters, I count the following (possible) duplicates: At least 30 on Hughes’ list twice: Mohammed Hanif Asmal, Jan Clein, John Coyne, Brian Ellis, Joan Garrity, John Halliday, Lesley Hardy, Matthew Harris, EP … Continue reading →

commented re a previous entry that the Lib Dem bloggers appear to be drifting to Huhne. Much consultation of Icerocket reveals that in fact the honours are fairly even so far, though it’s certainly the case that the bloggers backing … Continue reading →

I always used to find that the BSFA and Arthur C Clarke awards were better predictors of my personal tastes than, say, the Nebula, and that was even vefore I got to know the people running them. We now have … Continue reading →

Thoughts towards a future web page for my site: I just read the first story in Gardner Dozois’ 2004 collection – Pat Murphy’s “Inappropriate Behaviour” – and it is about a girl with autism. Two of the stories in the … Continue reading →

From in this instance, though in fact I did answer this one before. Now I have to do it again and give different answers. Name a CD you own that no one else on your friends list does. The Orthodox … Continue reading →

Several things arrived by post today. Three books sent by their author(s): Da nije bilo Oluje i drugi eseji / Who saved Bosnia and other essays by Vitomir Miles Raguž Media Guide to the New Scottish Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies, compiled … Continue reading →

My history of science days, and especially my PhD thesis, are long behind me now, so it was rather pleasant to get not one but two emails about it this morning. One was from a scientist with an Irish name … Continue reading →

5) Year’s Best SF 10, ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer I usually try and get these anthologies as soon as they are out, but somehow forgot about it last year, so am only catching up now. It’s always … Continue reading →

I’m voting for Chris Huhne. There’s not much to choose between the three candidates, to be honest. All three appear to have the same basic approach to policy; all three are professional politicians, with all the ups and downs of … Continue reading →

145 Me (leaning Huhne) 81 Jonathan Calder (Huhne) 57 caribou95 (Campbell) 48 John Hemming MP 45 James Graham (Huhne) 44 Peter Black AM (Hughes) 40 Richard Huzzey (Huhne) 35 Nick Barlow (Huhne) 34 burkesworks (Hughes) 34 Will Howells (Huhne) 34 Lynne Featherstone MP (Huhne) 33 imperial_artist (leaning Campbell) 30 Tim Hicks (Campbell) 24 Peter … Continue reading →

А а [a] – Aa Б б [b] – Bb В в [v] – Vv Γ г [g] – Gg Д д [d] – Dd Ѓ ѓ [gʲ] – | Е е [ɛ] – Ee Ж ж [ʒ] – @` … Continue reading →

The BBC are to axe Radio 4’s “UK theme” which starts every day at 0530 British time (ie 0630 our time, when the alarm clock goes off). For those of you who haven’t heard it: it starts with a snatch … Continue reading →

Unfortunately this has to be a locked entry. My views are too intemperate and unreasonable to be public. On the human level, of course I feel sorry for the family and friends of the Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo, who … Continue reading →

Many Russian dialling codes have changed. All local codes starting with 0 have been changed to 4 – most significantly, the local code for Moscow is now 495 rather than 095. The old codes are still valid but will be … Continue reading →

The Nebula short fiction nominees, in a nutshell. Novellas (5/5) Albert Cowdrey: The Tribes of Bela (F&SF, FictionWise) * Golden Age stuff (except with female characters equal to males). A straightforward sf story, well enough told, but not spectalular. In … Continue reading →

You too can drive a bulldozer to clear away the protestors

Since December 24th I have watched a lot of Doctor Who for the second time. Spoiler-free summaries follow, in the order in which they were first broadcast (but I should first of all mention that all but the last of … Continue reading →

Crumbs, Lembit does know how to pick ’em, doesn’t he?

Ibrahim Rugova, the President of Kosovo, has died.

Thanks, veryone, for your expressions of support and concern about Bridget. In fact we’ve since had two consecutive uninterrupted nights, and she had a great time swimming this morning, so the crisis for the moment appears to be over. Her … Continue reading →

I’ve been doing some more thinking after my post of last weekend. 1) Rates of inter-country migration: The results of my poll are really rather startling. OK, it’s not completely scientific – there are a few inconsistent answers about grandparents, … Continue reading →

On 23 December, friended my livejournal; on 29 December, did as well, and the following day so did and . (Yes, I am that obsessive, and check ‘s page every day.) All five user info pages for these accounts were … Continue reading →

Get well soon, Gerald. In particular, please don’t die before 13 November. I really don’t want Ronald Reagan holding the record for longest-lived president any longer than can be avoided.

Are you here?

“I know now where Azerbaijan is located but I don’t think that will help from a hockey point of view.“

From one of my mailing lists: 1. Take out a sheet of paper and draw a vertical line down the center. 2. On the left side, write down the names of all the negative people that suck the life out … Continue reading →