I am eyeing up the narrow gap between wardrobe and wall for bookshelf-potential, and feeling sheepish. I have tried to love my Kindle, honestly I have – it’s the future! Printed books are such old-tech! But the novels I’ve downloaded to it have been languishing there for months, and the truth is, I just don’t […]
Category Archives: Rants
Popular Does Not = Crap And actually, unpopular doesn’t, either. Value judgements, when it comes to artistic endeavour, are entirely subjective, and the success of a piece of work doesn’t necessarily correlate with the level of effort expended by, or the talent of, its creator. There’s a school of thought that suggests any work achieving […]
No doubt Barack Obama’s stated aims in the furtherance of peace are laudable enough, but in the case of Iran I wonder if the Nobel Committee hasn’t been a little premature in its evaluation of his efforts. The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is a repressive regime, governing without – despite protestations of democracy – […]
Dear Headmaster Like most parents, I want my children to have access to stimulating, informative materials that will enhance their knowledge of the world around them. At home, I carefully select the books, films, plays and exhibitions that I believe will increase their understanding, and vet those that I think might be confusing or inappropriate. […]
There’s a very useful technique used by some IT support departments, called “Talk to the Teddy Bear,” whereby a computer user explains his or her problem to a soft toy provided for the purpose, before bothering an actual techie with it. Very often, the solution to the problem will be discovered in the act of […]
