Hard-working Tory MPs on “lazy British workers”
According to the Daily Mirror, five Tory backbenchers have said in a book: “Too many people in Britain, we argue, prefer a lie-in to hard work … Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the...
View ArticleWhat good is the web? Some numbers
The World Wide Web Foundation published its first Web Index last week, which it describes as “the world’s first multi-dimensional measure of the Web’s growth, utility and impact on people and nations.”...
View ArticlePlease and Thank you
When my wife and I came to the UK from Thailand, she asked me why English people say “please” and “thank you” so often. This happened after a bus ride. I got on and asked for “two to Birmingham...
View ArticleOn the 2011 census
Yesterday, some results from our once-a-decade survey were published. As ever, the times they are a-changin’, and mad people are a-frothin’. According to the figures, In 2011 13 per cent (7.5 million)...
View ArticleEnglish words that also mean their opposite
English is a funny old language. Not content with having the widest vocabulary of any language, we confuse Johnny Foreigner further by having some words with contradictory meanings. The canonical...
View ArticleGeoffrey Clark’s redacted Gravesham Council election manifesto
The newspapers are reporting that charming representative of English tolerance Geoffrey Clark has been suspended by UKIP for his manifesto in which he froths at the mouth about “grandmas from coming to...
View ArticleOn Prince Phillip’s “Filipino nurse” comment
Prince Phillip told a Filipino nurse “The Philippines must be half empty – you’re all here running the NHS”. The man has a history of ethnic jokes in questionable taste. But this one has a nugget of...
View ArticleThe four tiers of David Bowie
After extensive scientific research, I can reveal the four tiers of David Bowie. Methodology I realised I own no Bowie except an old 45 rpm single of “Sound and Vision” which I can’t play as I have no...
View ArticlePoetry corner: Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was a prolific American private poet; fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. Most...
View ArticleNew “Tits ‘n’ sport” laptop … just for men!
Here at Lawson Industries, we were excited to read the announcement by Fujitsu of their “Floral Kiss” brand of PCs for Women, with gold trim, a flip latch that can “easily open the display—even by...
View ArticleUK ISPs confirm central database of filter opt-ins
After convincing my Member of Parliament, John Hemming, of the folly of Cameron’s plan to censor the web in the UK (sorry, I mean filter the web), he’s been doing some digging with the ISPs, writing to...
View ArticleOn prostitution
Mariya tweeted a link to an article on why young women in rural China become mistresses of older men, which reminded me of living next door to a paid mistress in Thailand, and she prompted me to blog...
View ArticleOn Goethe and “sobbenbunker”
Leaving Germany earlier today, I tweeted a farewell, politely using the native language of those I was farewelling “Ladies of Germany, auf wiedersehen. But don’t cry in your sobbenbunkers: I shall be...
View ArticleDavid Tennant’s Richard II (RSC)
We went to see David Tennant as Richard II in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s eponymous production last night. As a production it was all you’d want from RSC – great actors, impeccably staged. But I...
View ArticleThoughts on monetising user data
Aral Balkan asked me to “cut to the chase, Bruce: do you find anything wrong with the business models of Facebook & Google (monetising data)?” It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about, but it...
View Article“åpp større” and the Finnish Inquisition
A number of readers cast doubt on yesterday’s throwaway aside that in Finnish, “åpp større” means “fellate a demon”. It’s true that in modern Finnish it doesn’t. That’s because it’s wrapped up in a...
View ArticleThe fruitful lady of dawn
I really enjoy Brian Patten’s love poetry; he writes of joy and sadness and how the two can mingle, while never using words that you wouldn’t hear in an everyday conversation. He’s the only living poet...
View ArticleOn sex education for 7 year olds in UK schools
The BBC reports that Sex education should start at seven, Lib Dems say. Of course 7 year old kids should get sex education at school; puberty is from 8 years old for girls, 9 for boys. The whole point...
View ArticleMy Krispy Kreme playlist: ten musical guilty pleasures
Like everyone else on the Web, I’m a musical snob. I’d far rather listen to arty difficult stuff like Can and My Bloody Valentine than Abba. But I’m also a musician so have a love and admiration for...
View ArticleShake your Brucie!
Once in a generation, there is a perfect combination of circumstances that leads to the creation of something truly extraordinary. Today is that day – the flawless union of programming, content, beauty...
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