-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- December 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- December 2000
- December 1999
- January 1999
Categories
Meta
Monthly Archives: June 2010
June Books 19) The Bloody Sunday Report, Volume I
The admirable decision to post the whole of the report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry online (first volume in PDF available here) may not actually spur a lot of people to read it, but it has gripped me, and over … Continue reading
Linkspam for 30-6-2010
Political party to register "within weeks" Dissidents from the Irish Greens to set up their own group. Their disgruntlement with their former party is entirely comprehensible, but unfortunately their command of Irish rather poor; you can have "Fís Nua" or … Continue reading
World Cup quarter finals
You have until Friday to vote on the results of the quarter-finals – and just to make it interesting, I’ve broadened out the questions a bit.Scores in the 56 matches so far: seven 0-0 draws, including today’s Paraguay-Japan match; six … Continue reading
Reassuring
As I arrived at a meeting this morning, the keynote speaker, who I hadn’t seen for about three years, greeted me very jovially and told me I was looking very well. Since he is a former surgeon (though better known … Continue reading
June books
Non-fiction 5 (YTD 31) + Bloody Sunday Report vol 1 Fiction (non-sf) 2 (YTD 28) sf (non-Who or comics) 5 (YTD 45) Doctor Who (non-comics) 4 (YTD 32) Comics 3 (YTD 8) 5/19 (YTD … Continue reading
By-election blues
When Derviş Eroğlu was elected President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in April, he had to resign his seat in the TRNC’s parliament. His daughter Resmiye Canaltay ran as his party’s candidate in the by-election held last Sunday, … Continue reading
Flanders and Swann’s continuing relevance
We were discussing England’s exit from the World Cup over breakfast, and my wife hit on the reason for Germany’s success: “they practice beforehand, which ruins the fun.”
Second Round, Second Half
Doing two days at once seemed to work over the weekend, and I’m going out tomorrow night, so here is a poll on the matches for tomorrow and Tuesday: Three of this weekend’s matches had the expected result (sorry, England … Continue reading
June Books 18) Twilight Whispers, by Barbara Delinsky
This is a throbbing sensual romance about the serving girl who falls in love with the prince, set among America’s East Coast aristocracy, involving also a murder mystery which is resolved by a caring and sensitive police detective who violates … Continue reading
June Books 17) Lud-In-The-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees
I was inspired to buy this by Farah Mendlesohn’s Rhetorics of Fantasy, which ranks it as a key exemplar of one of the four modes of fantasy story-telling, the ‘liminal’ in which the boundary with the fantastic is hazy and … Continue reading
Brahms and Ravel on the Vuvuzela
As explained by Helge von Niswandt and colleaguies; non-German-speakers will appreciate the tone of the Terribly Serious Explanation even if you can’t understand it. (From here via Graham.)
On yer bike
In the name of fitness, I have been vaguely wondering if I should consider getting a bit more use out of my bicycle. (Young F has recently cracked the art of cycling, and now confidently bikes the 5 km to … Continue reading
World Cup – Round 2 weekend
A bit of a bumper poll – I am travelling over the weekend, so I’m including both Saturday’s and Sunday’s matches, and also inviting you to speculate on what we’ll be looking at this time next week.I’m not going to … Continue reading
Wold Cup Day 15
Current (and increasingly irrelevant) FIFA rankings: Current FIFA rankings: Brazil 1st, Spain 2nd, Portugal 3rd, Chile 18th, Switzerland 24th, Côte d’Ivoire 17th, Honduras 38th, North Korea 105thToday’s matches included Slovakia’s extraordinary defeat of the title holders, leaving Italy languishing below … Continue reading
Hugo short stories
Finally, rounding up my reviews of the Hugo written fiction nominees, here is my rating of the candidates for Best Short Story, as before in reverse order of preference. 5) “Bridesicle”, by Will McIntosh, is a very icky story indeed … Continue reading
Format irritation
I generally read e-books on my Blackberry, converting them from PDF, HTML or word processor format with Mobipocket’s free converter. As mentioned previously, this sometimes proves problematic with PDFs. I hit another such problem reading Peter Watts’ story, “The Island”, … Continue reading
Hugo novelettes
Here are my votes for the Best Novelette category, in reverse order. 6) “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky is, unfortunately, a story about a sexy anthropomorphic robot who decides to find his soul – told from the point of … Continue reading
The three point rule
Back when I were a lad, you got only two points for winning a game in a group match, and one for a draw. From 1994 onwards, that was changed to three points for a win, and one for a … Continue reading
Good week for women in politics
Someone pointed out in a locked entry that the same day that Julia Gillard slightly unexpectedly became prime minister of Australia, Iveta Radičová has been asked to form the next government of Slovakia. This is two days after Mari Kiviniemi … Continue reading
World Cup Day 14
Apologies – I failed to crosspost the poll to yesterday and instead posted it here twice. This would explain why there were only 40 responses rather than the usual 60 or 70. Current FIFA rankings: Netherlands 4th, Italy 5th, Cameroon … Continue reading
World Cup Day 13
Current FIFA rankings (looking increasingly irrelevant): Germany 6th, England 8th, USA 14th, Serbia 15th, Australia 20th, Slovenia 25th, Algeria 30th, Ghana 32nd Hearty congratulations to , the only person to call all four of today’s matches correctly. I certainly was … Continue reading
World Cup, Day 13 – your predictions
Current FIFA rankings (looking increasingly irrelevant): Germany 6th, England 8th, USA 14th, Serbia 15th, Australia 20th, Slovenia 25th, Algeria 30th, Ghana 32nd Hearty congratulations to , the only person to call all four of today’s matches correctly. I certainly was … Continue reading
Doctor Who Rewatch: 09
It’s not so long since I last rewatched The War Games, but it still strikes me as one of the greatest ever Who stories (see also Neil Gaiman’s take). I wrote last time of why I appreciated most of the … Continue reading
Hugo novellas wrap-up
I’ve written up the other three novella nominees in separate entries, as is my usual practice with books, and now come to the final two. “Palimpsest”, by Charles Stross, didn’t really grab me I’m afraid. It is a tale of … Continue reading
World Cup Day 12
Current FIFA rankings: Argentina 7th, France 9th, Greece 13th, Uruguay 16th, Mexico 17th, Nigeria 21st, South Korea 47th, South Africa 83rd (but with home advantage for what that is worth). A record 14 people called all three of today’s matches … Continue reading
World Cup Day 11
Current FIFA rankings: Spain 2nd, Portugal 3rd, Chile 18th, Switzerland 24th, Honduras 38th, North Korea 105th One big surprise in today’s results, one less surprising and one very much as expected. , , and all got three out of three.
June Books 16) Mother of Plenty, by Colin Greenland
I have got a third of the way through this and still don’t know what is going on, and have forgotten who the characters are, despite having read the two previous books in the series, so I’m putting it away.
June Books 15) Schlock Mercenary: Longshoreman of the Apocalypse, by Howard Tayler
I rated the previous volume in this series last in my Hugo voting last year, as did the voters, despite it being the only nominee that was made available to all as part of the Hugo voters package. This year … Continue reading
A dozen Big Finish plays
I’ve finally caught up with the current run of Big Finish audio plays, and have resolved that in future I’m going to do them individually as I listen to them, as I do with books. In the past I had … Continue reading
On not getting a job
I do a fair bit of recruiting – hiring interns two or three times a year, and occasional involvement in more senior hires – and a couple of thoughts came together for me this week. First of all, if you … Continue reading