The St James Centre Techno Bridge has won an award!

From the Institute of Structural Engineers. Apparently it's just called the Greenside Place Bridge. Still most excellent however.

Well, the weather in Edinburgh has been ridiculously cold this week

and I have been using the coolest promotional windscreen ice-scraper I have ever encountered...

because it's beholden upon me to post stuff i notice about Alan Moore

Catching Up with Alan Moore

Latest thoughts on property market..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4421496.stm

Well at least the telly's not #### this time of year

(forgive the ## prudery but am typing this in an extremely corporate environment). Rome pretty good, Bleak House impressively techno-fied and The Thick of It just superb (tho last night's final episode the weakest of the 2nd series I think).

Is it just me...

Like the title of this book, although I fear it could be one of those wacky stocking fillers they always bring out at this time of year.



(more)

Internet Identity Workshop

I don't know why I find this fuuny

Scotland's murderous heart

Ah, makes you proud.

Wherever I lay my hat....

I'm moving flat. Place I'm in is closing down, so I'm off to see other bits of London. There's a reasonably nice place I saw in Finchley that I'll probably go for. Anyone know what that area is like (I only visited it once)? Is £360 + bills a reasonable rent? They do have wireless broadband...

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find any gratuitous link to throw in here...oh yeah, Age of Empires III demo is out)

Bumper stickers

We don't really have this political bumper sticker culture here.



By the way, did you know that Jews invented the weekend?

Patriotic Posters

Some satirical, Bush-baiting WWII style propaganda posters etc. Weird thing is, I bet right wingers would be happy with some of this stuff at a less ironic level.

T-shirt for Tom:


I'm not at work today, can you tell?

Best hairstyle ever

If only I could grow my hair like this:




(full story)

Un-Restoration

They're knocking down that burnt out hotel you can see from the East Coast mainline at Dunbar. Hurrah I say, about time too.

The Other Hurricane

Time for one of our regular global warming freak outs...

Inside the new St James Centre bridge this morning.

Techno City or what? (Image taken with my cameraphone and thus a bit ropy I'm afraid).

21st Century Crusaders

The US Military-Industrial Complex gets a little carried away...

Shining

Remixed trailer for an old classic.

Serenity

This looks flipping excellent.

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

Oh yes

Oblique Strategies

Eno and Schmidt

Top fact

The bloke who owns the Independent, Tony O'Reilly, was pro-Iraq war.

Songs and stuff

monkeehub, which is apparently just one guy, did that brilliant "Creep" flash video that I'm sure I linked to many moons ago. Anyway, after you've depressed yourself watching that, you can cheer yourself up again by watching the even more brilliant JCB song which is doing the interweb rounds at the moment. Summer type nostalgically excellent stuff. (Sound obviously required and probably don't even bother if you're on dial-up)

Festival Fun

Although Shavers Weekly always used to herald this time of the year with their 'Oh No, Here Come the Festival Wanks' issue - anything good on at the festival, John?

bit quiet in here recently

how is everyone?

A British Jihadist

This Prospect interview is pretty illuminating.

freecycle

the philanthropic cousin of ebay apparently...

A few observations from Edinburgh

The light is very different - a clear blue-grey as opposed to the flat, exhaust-tinged glare of London.

It's not half as busy - drove round the bypass to Sighthill during rush hour this morning and it took me about 30 minutes tops. With the exception of Princes Street there are no crowds at all.

Chip and PIN seems to have only recently made inroads up here. Shop staff ask solicitously if you know your PIN before proffering the keypad...

Prayer 'no aid to heart patients'

Well that's a surprise. Quite a scoop.

(As predicted) Open Source beer has arrived...

..::...Vores ØL...::..

Second Tuesday again?

Are we on for a Second Tuesday tonight?

Everyone OK?

Interesting h2g2 entry

The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-words. Illuminating stuff - I particularly like the bit about the origin of the phrase "the dog's bollocks."

Fame and fortune beckon

This is it, lads - a chance to turn Fitzrovian into a bestselling (christmas novelty) book!

Live 8

A special evening, even on telly. The Who!!!

It's here - and it looks very good

Google Earth - Home

Bush evokes 9/11 to bolster Iraq war

Can believe he's still peddling this nonsense.

quite an unusual edition this week

The Onion 2056

Cbeebies does Shakespeare

This is Jenny's current internet favourite. It's quite good - the flash animation is nicely done and Oberon has a top Glaswegian accent.

Huge table

On Hampstead Heath. The artist used to play football for the New York Apollos in the 70s!

Third (Last?) Tuesday Redux

Can you actually redux a last?.... But, anyway...

Software patents in the EU
This particular site is a bit heavy going for a morning after, but there're plenty other sites about why this is such a bad idea.

EU Constitution
Just for fun, I link an even more boring site....

Rotary Mobile Telephone
This is more like it! Excellent coolness personified (or would be, if it was a person)

Warhammer 40, 000
Paint models. I'm sure there's probably more to it than that, but who knows what exactly? By Grabthar's hammer, by the sons of Worvan, you shall be avenged! Or something.


Global recession and stuff like that...well, I dunno....US national debt is 7.8 trillion at the moment, which might be bad if they ever get called on it, but I can't see that as long as their GDP holds up. In fact, I'm going to stick to my guns on this one and say that they will probably manage OK (though I suppose this kind of depends on the moves of their next president). I'll leave it to the pessimists to post some damning statistics ;-)

House prices defy doomsayers!
Ok, yeah, I have to go to New Zealand to find good news....I'm still going to buy in Estonia...

Third Tuesday

What time are people thinking about getting to the pub? I can be there for 6'ish...

Iraq as Vietnam

I know, I know - more Iraq stuff, but this is a great piece and I have been struck (once again) about what an utter disaster it all is. Tom Engelhardt is one of the web's greatest journalists.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/06/iraq_as_vietnam.html

This is insane (assuming it's not a spoof)

Sprayonmud

second tuesday

flipping heck. this tuesday is tuesday 14th and as such the second tuesday of the month. anyone fancy going to that scottish place on trafalgar sq for some porridge and whisky cocktails or whatever they serve? (alternatively there's this pub on charlotte st which is ok...)

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - House prices to take off as airport woos foreign buyers

Second item of the day from John's news digest. Edinburgh definitely on a roll these days...

BBC NEWS | Business | G8 reaches deal for world's poor

This looks suspiciously like good news. Shurely shome mishtake?

Fitzrovian Facts!

Apologies for not responding to your interesting posts this week - has been a lot going on. To make up for it, here's some more Fitzrovian Facts:

Augustus John used to hang out at the Fitzroy. He would pat the head of every child he passed on Charlotte St, in case it was his.

Bob Dylan played upstairs in a Fitzrovian pub in the 60s.

George Orwell's wife used to live in Percy St (the same st Hitler's brother lived in). He used it as the model for the room Winston and Julia use for their affair in 1984.

Once You Start Dancing...

A Kosovan guy I know has just arrived in London on an internship and is writing a blog about it. His youthful positivity is enough to warm the heart of even the most jaded of Fitzrovians...

http://onceyoustartdancing.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the Bluegrass Preservation Society, Inc. Website

Bluegrass Friday!

A Picture of Britain

New exhibition in the Tate (plus tv series and book) is being trailed in this weekend's papers. I'm determined to make it to this (for once).

Bewl Water

Just been here for the day - it's one of the seven wonders of the "Weald" apparently. Actually very good with an excellent adventure playground (Tom).

Sin City

Sometimes even I win things....such as an xfm competition to see "Sin City" at The Rex, which is an "exclusive members club with cinema" in Soho. Well, I'd planned to see the film anyway, and oh, might as well admit it, I was also enticed by the phrase "The film is to be introduced by Brittany Murphy and Jessica Alba so you won't want to be late." Hah! Yeah, a video introduction...how cheated do I feel....

Sin City is an adaptation of the comic book (or graphic novel, if you prefer ;) . It's all guns and girls and one-liners in the midst of mayhem. There isn't really a great deal to say about the film, since it's pretty much what you'd expect a (good) comic book adaptation to be: nothing too deep and meaningful, but plenty of action. It also has a weird and wonderful look, which at times leaves you wondering whether it's live action, CGI or animation. Most of the film is monochrome with colour used sparingly (a girl's eyes; blood on a face) which makes for some stunning visuals.

One problem I did have with the film is that I kept expecting the stories to merge at some point and they don't. It's more like "Tales from Sin City" where the viewer is given glimpses of the life of these weird characters.

Not one for the kiddies, it's unashamedly violent and old fashionedly sexist, in a film noir sense. Excellent fun.

Fitzrovian Facts!

The Fitzroy Tavern was built in 1897. Former regular Aleister Crowley invented a cocktail for the pub, the kubla khan no 2, from gin, vermouth and laudanum.

After all the writers moved onto the Wheatsheaf, the place became a gay hangout in the 50s, when such behaviour was illegal, but it got raided by the police.

Twenty Questions!

Anyone come across this neural network 20 questions game? It's slightly eerie how it successfully guesses what you're thinking about: http://www.20q.net

The Monastery

This was fantastic - did anyone else catch it?

London Compendium:

I bought a copy of The London Compendium at the weekend, and now intend to bore you at regular intervals with top facts about Fitzrovia.

Tonight: Adolf Hitler's half brother lived at 4 Percy St (the one between the Fitzroy and Tottenham Ct Rd), and Adolf visited him there in 1912.

Also: In 1640, the entire area was an estate, which was acquired by Henry Fitzroy, an illegitimate son of Charles II, who later became Earl of Euston.

The Sun

Slightly ashamed about finding this funny, but enjoyed the Sun's headline on Friday: Bush Probes Sadam's Pants. Sub-head was something along the lines of 'He's determined to get to the bottom of it'. It has become Viz. (This in response to their picture of Hussein in underwear on the previous day.)

Undiscovered Scotland

I know it's been linked to before, but it's worth mentioning again that the Undiscovered Scotland website is totally fantastic browsing fodder. I particularly like this bit.

Ahh, I am half in love with easeful middle age...

Respect!

On second thoughts, Galloway's alright after all.

Contemporary Scottish Bar in London...

Has anyone come across this? Maybe we should go for a Fitzroy Tuesday summer excursion?

http://www.albannach.co.uk/

More on What the Bleep

Dickie Dawkings having a pop in today's Grauniad. Bet the bloke from Edinburgh feels a bit foolish, his criticisms far milder than the rest of them.

The trailer's up

and it looks pretty good.

I really don't like George Galloway

I've no idea whether the current allegations are true or not, but he just referred to himself in the third person in his BBC interview. Never a good sign.

Another classic

Sorry to get there late, but we still managed to cover the following:

- arguments for Scottish independence vs devolution
- the open source brewery
- the new political landscape
- the work-life balance
- whether God is a fascist or not and if e=mc2 describes or governs the universe
- existentialist teleology

Anything else...?

Open Office

Has anyone (ie John or Seumas) tried the Open Office open source office suite?

Lookout v1.2

Lookout for Outlook. Incredibly useful if you use Outlook as your mail client...

What the Bleep Do We Know!? :: Official UK Site

What the Bleep Do We Know!? :: Official UK Site

Pub

So just to be clear, we are up for the pub this evening yeah? I can get there fairly early-ish...

There are more of us than I thought...

about 1.1 billion in fact...

a brilliant website

I particularly like the 'pictures of burning palaces' section:
http://www.throneout.com/palaces_on_fire.asp

This

Spanish ISP obviously didn't check with English speakers before choosing its name

I love this corny film

Now available on DVD. Has been impossible to get hold of until now - dodgy VHS tapes changing hands for £50 on ebay.

Tuesday 10th a go-er then?

I'm certainly up for it. There is plenty to discuss, and Charlotte St will be illumined by the clear light of an early summer evening.

VOTE LABOUR

VOTE LABOUR

New Yorker - Global Warming

Final part of a new yorker 3-parter on global warming. Also, did you see the Tony Blair profile, reprinted in the Observer on Sunday? Like most New Yorker features, about twice as long as it could have been, but quite interesting on the Iraq stuff...

Thames Water - New River

Interesting (in a North London-y kind of way) Thames Water site about the New River. Neither new nor a river...

flipping heck

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Car lands in home's upper floor

Drink

We haven't been for a pint for a while. Was just chatting to John and figured that next Tuesday (the 3rd) would be an appropriate date. What you guys reckon?

UPDATE: John isn't feeling too good. Can we try for next week instead? Maybe Tuesday 10th?

The Feds can own your WLAN too

Interesting article about how to hack WLANs

Immigration Facts Quiz

Praxis. Apparently, people born outside the UK contribute £2.5bn more in taxes than they take in benefits.

ya beauty

Google maps for UK. No satellite link yet however...

Laptop advice

I want to buy a new laptop, small to medium sized, preferably no more than £800.

I want one that's small and light enough to cart around with me, but not one of those pricey, really tiny ones that break easily and don't have any disc drives or anything.

Any tips re: brands and retailers? I'm not too fussy. Toshibas always seem to be pretty cheap for what you get - are they alright?

Hoist!

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Election 2005 | 'Islamists' hit Galloway meeting

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY