October 26, 2005
wonderous things
lady with theramin bra makes fabulous videos and terrible music (quicktime)
October 25, 2005
“This book is like an ungrateful girlfriend. You do your best to understand her and get nothing back in return.”
one star reviews of literary classics from amazon. spot on about tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (1954)
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
“The book is not readable because of the overuse of adverbs.”
God save the heretic
Christopher Hart on the religious hatred bill
"If the bill is passed then the kind of things I have written at the start of this article — to my mind, perfectly reasonable, evidentiary and legitimately discomforting things — could well land me in Wormwood Scrubs. It is astonishing that any modern democratic government should be even considering such a law. But then this comes from the people who brought us the similarly botched, ill-conceived and unenforceable Hunting Act only last year."
October 24, 2005
ladies and gentlemen, mr phil star has left the building
sad news from brighton, venerable drag act mr phil star has died. tony and i had recently taken to haunting the star bar, named in his honour, on a saturday night. a funny man and an excellent singer and the host of a great night out.
“My husband died of alcohol. He came home pissed and I shot the bastard.”
One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Elizabeth Bishop
October 21, 2005
fictional gay terrorists
"An unknown gay rights group claimed it planted a dozen fake bombs around Warsaw that paralysed the Polish capital on Thursday, three days before the second round of a presidential election."
sounds entirely fictional, and even the right wing law and justice party it's aimed at think so.
link
October 20, 2005
all i want for christmas is a three day week
the north sea gas fields are near depleted and completion of a pipeline to bring in imported gas is three years off, most european countries have energy reserves for 55 days, and we have 11 days of reserves. with the winter predicted to be the coldest on record for 40 years, the CBI fears the return of the three day week this winter.
almost as good as house arrest.
October 18, 2005
does that come in mimosa and antelope?
argent grey, pumpkin, aubergine, mimosa, pomegranate, mauve grey, darkest brown, dull grey mauve, grenadine, pale greenstone, putty, petrol blue, almond, antelope, peat, moor green.
i love the toast catalogue. it gets cold and suddenly a girls mind turns to layered anatolian knitwear with gaucho belts. but frankly i haven't the faintest idea what most of thier colours actually are.
October 14, 2005
October 13, 2005
the english catholic church warns on fundermentalism
an outbreak of sense from the senseless. the english catholic church has produced a teaching document on the bible that warns against interpreting it's canon as either historically true in an absolute sense and a scientific description of the world.
"The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.
“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.” "
October 12, 2005
soon the internet will sink under the weight of cat photos
flickr will in future times (once google has merged with the UN and global hive mind makes all desires readable) be seen as the cat hair that broke the camels back.
the cat box group has been investigating the mysterious age old connection between cats and boxes.
hirsi ali on the position of women in islam
"I would like to defend the proposition that in Islam women are subordinate to men. The sexual morality propagated in Islam leads, when put into practice, to cruel violations of the rights of women and girls. By making a statement like this one I know that I am inviting disagreement. I am most interested in the arguments of my critics. Let me demonstrate this inequality.
According to Islamic teachings in the Qur’an and hadith: Muslim men are free to go where they want while most Muslim women are confined to their houses. Muslim men do not need permission to leave the house; women do. Muslim men are not obligated to veil their beauty but Muslim women must. A man may divorce his wife as easily as repeating the words "I divorce you" three times in the presence of two witnesses. A woman who wants to leave her husband must prove at least that he does not meet her material needs. She must prove that he is impotent. She must prove that he cannot make her pregnant. She must have the approval of her wali (or guardian). A man may inherit twice as much as a woman. His testimony in matters of conflict is worth twice hers. Just in case there is a hereafter, women know from the prophet that their sort is over-represented in hell, while men can look forward to 72 virgins and companionship with their men folk.
It is demanded in the Qur'an that a woman obeys her husband indefinitely. For the man conforming to the wishes of his wife is an option. A man may have sexual intercourse with his wife when and how he wants. Her refusal will invite the curses of angels and the wrath of her husband. If a man rejects his wife in bed the angels are silent and her disappointment may lead her husband to think that she is in the grip of the devil, who fills her with uncontrollable desires. Even though a man may marry four wives provided he promises to treat them equally, a woman has the right to only one man. And even this right is limited by the fact that she cannot do so without permission from her guardian (father, brother, or paternal uncle). "
speach to the 'victims of jihad' conference organised by the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
a note for suicides in the south
do you really want the last moments of your life, the first hours of your death cursed by 50,000 people? as you leave behind the cares of this world do you really want to be refered to as that selfish cunt? no? then don't fucking top yourself on the train tracks. there are after all a plethora of ways to kill yourself, or alternatively you could read dorothy parker.
Razors pain you; Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give;
Gas smells awful; You might as well live.
Résumé
October 10, 2005
google 2084
google homepage 2084, from the new york times.
October 05, 2005
daily mail
the best daily mail headline since 'leftwing claptrap masquerades as art' today: "are tall women too ambitious to be mums?". the mail appears to be a bit obsessed with height. splendidly the story is illustrated with a picture of jodie kidd titled: jodie kidd: 6ft 1in and no children.
October 04, 2005
a turkish bath for brighton
back from a week in turkey and now convinced that the one thing missing from brighton (other than the hippy death-ray and a dedicated woodpanelled fencing club) is a haman. there are, i am told, bath houses in brighton but they cater for - erm, gentlemen's social requirements, rather than steamin'n'cleanin.
there did use to be baths, vapour baths first in the 1820's and then later a small rash of turkish baths in the 1860s, according to the local history site.
"On 22 May 1867, a group of wealthy men formed a company called the Brighton Turkish Baths Co Ltd to build and run a new establishment which they called the Brighton Hammam, and employed Mr Horatio Nelson Goulty, of Goulty & Gibbons, as architect. The building looked Moorish both outside and in, cost £14,000, and was opened on 12 October 1868."
that £14,000 is £789,880.06 in todays money. any investors?
additional reporting by randomattention.
October 03, 2005
YUYIN, The remnants of sound that stay in the ears of the hearer
KOSHATNIK Russian
A dealer in stolen cats.
TINGO Pascuense language, Easter Island
Borrowing things from a friend's house, one by one, until he has nothing left.
KARELU Tulu Indian
The mark left on the skin by wearing anything tight.
KUSUKUSU Japanese
The suppressed giggling and tittering of a group of women.
fabulous words. my favourite french word is unijambist, a one-legged person.