August 2009

Simon Jenkins is opposed to forecasts in general. He thinks they are surrounded by too many caveats: We hear much talk about those who study English needing to be taught science. In my view, it is those who study science who need to be taught English. What is the point of public predictions so smothered…

Read More I am who I am!

A really good fisk is almost like a remix; you should be thankful for the original chunk of hackwork for giving us the chance to do something interesting. Hence Matt Carr, who dons the positive-pressure mask and takes the scalpel, chops up Christopher Caldwell’s book, and demonstrates the throbbing worm guts to the eager students…

Read More you say you want a revolution, well, you know…

OK, here’s Tim Loughton, Tory MP for Worthing, who’s utterly dedicated to fighting the surveillance state. He says so: Using pupils’ fingerprints in schools has been criticised by many MPs, including Sussex Conservatives Nick Gibb and Tim Loughton, who fear sensitive information about children could fall into the wrong hands. Mr Loughton, MP for East…

Read More tory of the week

What’s wrong with PROFIT?! Death to all Marxists! Hey, I usually try to remain calm, but this is getting unnerving. Everyone with any sense knew there would be an epic wingnut freakout after the US elections – the structural forces made it inevitable, after all the time spent denying plate tectonics – but who imagined…

Read More …from the sea

Danny Rampling: Since I’ve become a property developer my life has changed for the better I suppose this was always on the cards. Kasimir Malevich: We are in a desert …. Before us is nothing but a black square on a white background! Meanwhile, look who’s got a new album out; others agree. Northern Stomp…

Read More square

I got around to updating the Viktorfeed whitelist, and whilst I was at it, doing a clean-up of the database to remove all the known false positives by deleting all the movements that came from an airline that was on the list. Interestingly, this gave me an opportunity to calculate the false positive rate –…

Read More false positives

I was hoping we wouldn’t be seeing any more of these. 86.62.12.74, on a high latency satellite link, searching UAE Google for IraqLEStaffScheme. My original post on the official instructions for UK employees in Iraq is here. This is why I was keen to re-raise the issue before the final withdrawal, which is now looking…

Read More left behind

The remaining British training team in southern Iraq has been moved to Kuwait to await negotiations on their future status. A suggestion: couldn’t they perhaps wait in…Britain?

Read More out