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Monthly Archives: April 2004

Superb new briefing document at Abelard.org: Islamic authoritarianism

“Islamic authoritarianism includes a short glossary of terms widely used by Islamic fundamentalist elements. This document is also one of a series of documents analysing dysfunctional social, or group, behaviour in modern society.” Excellent

Motion Induced Blindness [blind]

Interesting phenomenon this. Dots disappear one by one as you watch. Check it out.

Dirty Bomb film being made by the BBC

I found out at the weekend that the BBC film about a radiological bomb is being filmed in London at the moment. The film was axed last year because of political pressures (apparently Greg Dyke had to call newspaper editors at 1am), but it have been revived for an October 2004 screening. The film follows [...]

Horrible abuse of prisoners by US renegade troops [BBC]

“Images of US soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners at a notorious jail near Baghdad have sparked shock and anger.”
This is a grim story. Looks like these prisoners were abused, possibly tortured and certainly subjected to humiliation and japes. Predictably and rightly we in the West have reacted with shock and outrage. The US armed forces [...]

Louise Bourgeois’ sculpture of a spider called “Maman” (Mother) at the Tate Modern [Tate]

“I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form
of an object be what it may - light, shade, and
perspective will always make it beautiful.”
John Constable (1776 - 1837)
[Update: Abelard alerted me to the existence of this beautiful picture of the sculpture at its home at The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao
.

Click [...]

Must have Noise Cancelling Headset [Cool Tools]

“The Boom uses noise cancellation technology to allow you to clearly communicate even if you are calling from the noisiest of places. For example, this headset is now widely used on rambunctious stock market trading floors. I was blown away when I tested this with a friend. His voice came through clearly even though he [...]

97-Year-Old Woman Cuffed, Booked For Unpaid Ticket [USA Psycho Cops]

“…she has an unblemished 80-year driving record. She accepts the blame and doesn’t fault the police for doing their duty.”
Poor old dear!

The Essential Difference - a talk by author Simon Baron Cohen

Saw a very interesting talk last night by Simon Baron-Cohen, author of The Essential Difference and brother of comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen (Ali G) last night at the Royal Institution.
The topic was his lifelong research on the mental differences between men and women. It was an interesting talk by a witty and intelligent speaker.
I recommend [...]

Massive thunder storm slamming West London

Lightening forks and heavy rain. Loud thunder every few seconds. It feels like I am in Johannesburg!

The 39 Steps: A Primer on Story Writing [Writers Center]

“1) Step one in the great enterprise of a new and preferable you in the house of fiction is: Mean less. That is, don’t mean so much. Make up a story, screw around with it, paste junk on it, needle the characters, make them say queer stuff, go bad places, insert new people at inopportune [...]