Highlights
Nearly half a bicycle
The atomic theory in Kilburn — This place (on Kilburn High Road) has been morphing steadily from dry cleaner’s to bike shop over the last few years. I remember being surprised one morning to see a few kids’ bikes lined up for sale outside but I’d say the shop is now approaching 50% bike shop. […]
Where is my patriotism?
Come, love of country, fill my heart… — I do love Britain. I guess I love England more. London most of all. I hope that in my life I’ve honoured the place I live and not disgraced it or undermined it (I support England and GB in sporting events – I fly a little flag […]
Some bullet-points about regulation
In case you’d got the wrong idea about how the ’regulatory state‘ is supposed to work — UPDATED 23 May 2025. I could update this thing daily. Regulation is always a news story in the UK (Search any news service for ‘regulation‘ right now and you’ll get a long list of current news stories about […]
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Folk justice
Sophisticated it ain’t. Taking a man’s lottery winnings away from him fifteen years after he was convicted and sentenced may sound Mediaeval to you but I suspect there’s worse to…
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Admirable Things
The admirable Things Magazine has reached its tenth anniversary. I’m a recent convert (like thousands of people, I guess, by way of the equally good New Things linklog). You can…
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Buy my stuff…
I bet you need a powerful, versatile flash gun for that old manual focus Nikon of yours, don’t you? Here’s a good one.
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Animal testing crackdown
The animal rights people aren’t terrorists, not even the ugly ones wearing balaclavas and harassing researchers and their families – that’s just big pharma spin. They are stupid, though. Their…
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Half a kilometre and climbing…
Short piece from MIT’s Technology Review about the latest world’s tallest building – in Taipei – soon to be overtaken by several others, including the Twin Towers’ replacement (NY Times).…
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Small amusements
Pages like this will one day form a sort of buried stratum from which info-archaeologists will reconstruct the texture of our time – or something. Russell’s been photographing those little…
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One great book, one bad one…
Here’s a beautiful book about The Marx Brothers and here’s a dreadful one about Groucho. The first, by movie comedy-specialist Simon Louvish, is warm, melancholy, loaded with incident, contemporary accounts,…
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Through the looking glass
When I was a kid I used to lie in bed at night with my crappy Sanyo radio and roam the shortwave bands. I loved those voices from distant places.…
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Two kinds of business insight
Here’s a really fascinating peek inside the Movable Type machine from Mena Trott. Like a lot of inventors, she’s giving up the CEO role in favour of a more experienced…
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Graf Schmaf
Ivan reckons I should have written something about the Graf Report. Of course he’s right – I’ll get around to it – but, in the meantime, here’s a useful statistical…
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Azeem Azhar on IP
Azeem wrote an excellent review of two new books about intellectual property – one from the sainted Larry Lessig and one from William Fisher – a more level-headed Harvard law…