Category Archives: Odds n Sods

Lessing on the Internet

Doris Lessing’s Nobel acceptance speech (The Guardian prints the full version) is causing waves about its attack on the Internet. Of course Lessing is entitled to her own view but is out of kilter with some excellent stuff that is … Continue reading

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Don’t Panic: Portland campaign to set up Douglas Adams Boulevard

The citizens of Portland, Oregon have set in motion a campaign to change 42nd Avenue into Douglas Adams Boulevard for the following reasons: It will reflect Portlanders’ commitment to the arts. It will reflect Portlanders’ respect for the environment. It … Continue reading

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French authorities arrest a team who repaired a 150 year old clock

I wish I’d seen this before but BoingBoing has this link to a Times article and a Guardian piece on the exploits of les UX, an underground (quite literally) group of people who hold cultural events in the most unlikely … Continue reading

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Short stories about William Blake on the BBC

The BBC are running a series of readings and events inspired by the work of William Blake this week in their afternoon reading slots and Neil Gaiman’s story runs on Thursday. It will be available on the above link for … Continue reading

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Byatt talks fairies at Dulwich

A.S. Byatt has written this review of The Age of Enchantment exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (phone: 020-8693 5254) which takes place from 28th November to 17 February 2008. The illustrations are include works the 1890s to the 1930s, … Continue reading

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Romulus and Remus cave discovered

Archaeologists are claiming to have found the cave the Romulus and Remus were suckled in by the she-wolf (the Guardian has a video here). I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad really. I liked the myth and its … Continue reading

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Colossus machine back online

A Neal Stephenson thing from the BBC news site really but the Colossus machine (one of the first ever programmable computers) has been rebuilt and will be pitted against a modern PC to break codes sent from a 1942 Lorenz … Continue reading

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Slaying vampires in Romania

The Independent is running an article by Timothy Taylor as an introduction to his documentary on the Discovery Channel at 9pm on Halloween called the “Real Vampires”. Normally these shows are little bits of a giggle and akin to watching … Continue reading

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Evolutionary Theorist foresees split in human race

Oliver Curry, an evolutionary theorist at the LSE, opines that homo sapiens might well split into two strands like the Eloi and the Morlocks from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine in a report for the men’s television channel, Bravo. He … Continue reading

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Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine not to some folks taste?

BoingBoing has this post on the interruption of a performance of Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine by somebody posing as a police officer citing Californian law.

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