Russian MP3s

Tom tells me that allofmp3.com, a Russian pay-per-download site, is great, safe and dirt cheap. Apparently it's not exactly legal per se, but gets away with it because of Russia's lax copyright laws.


(Tom, is this the one you were talking about?)

Deadly plague hits Warcraft world

Always interesting when things like this happen.

Cost of War

Rolling total of the cost of Iraq. Those are some big numbers.

Literature for the time poor

book a minute

No Direction Home

One for you, I think, Tom: The BBC are showing Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary on the 26th and 27th of September.

A Slobbering Slugfest

The Hitchens - Galloway debate was apparently not very eloquent, but Radio 4 are broadcasting highlights on Saturday night.

The extinction of UK frogs?

Has anyone been following this story over the last few years? The lethal amphibian funghi has now spread to the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4249136.stm

Oxford Bar

Continuing the tradition of visiting literary watering holes I'm going here for a pint this evening.

Norway's formula for a happy life

Oil money + welfare state + equality = good place to live

(see here)

Don't dumb me down

Good Bad Science piece in today's paper.

After the Flood

A few good post-hurricane pieces in the current New Yorker, including this one laying into Bush, which is always good.

Serious Games

Does anyone know anything about 'serious games' - computer games with real-world, practical applications, such as training etc. Especially keen to hear about anything that doesn't involve training the US millitary to kill people...

HBO: Rome

This looks the business. Should be on BBC at before too long as they co-produced it with HBO. In line with HBO's anti-establishment ethos they've released a Firefox only browser theme...

"an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning."

He said it - great Wikipedia entry on David Hume.

New statue at Harrods