The Metro is now my sole source of news
There used to be a lot more newspapers lying around the places I work but that seems to have changed. Now it just seems to be the Metro which I … Read More
Category: Blog
My blog and occasional comment on current affairs.
Halting State by Charles Stross is fun for gamers
Halting State is set in the not too distant future. Scotland has devolved (in a political not Darwinian sense), gained independence, and the world is even more saturated with information technology and computer nerdiness than ever before.
Science fiction used to look like the Vasquez rocks
In my youth alien planets were desert but today they are forests. To be specific, in my youth they looked like the Vasquez rocks outside LA and now they look like a Canadian forest.
Prostitutes and Burlesque Dancers vs the Evil Council
I missed two marches in London I would like to have seen.
Moon landings, dashed dreams, and why we should go to Mars.
You may have guessed by now that I get pissed off by conspiracy types that claim we haven’t been to the moon. What they have done is look at all the stuff NASA has put out and rather than construct any decent arguments, have simply picked holes in the ‘proof’.
Some of the ghosts, spirits and demons of Thailand
Although over 95% of the Thai population are Buddhists, there is also a strong belief in Animism or spirit worship. Ghosts and spirits (known as Pii) abound and are found everywhere from offices and homes to haunted trees and fruit groves.
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev: brilliant and short
Don’t be put off by the fact that this book is a ‘Russian classic’, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons is truly worth a read.
Sleazy British politicians and their shocking yet hilarious expenses
My favourite has to be: (from Metro) ‘George Osborne charged the taxpayer £47 for two DVDs of his own speech on Value For Taxpayers’ Money.’
I am being paid to watch kids’ TV and it’s complete madness
It’s now 6am and I am at work. There is something wrong with the way my life is going. Working in TV as a freelancer is a bizarre way to make a living.
Welcome to Hell by Colin Martin – Thai prison woes
Colin Martin worked in construction, had his own small business, and was married with kids. An almost clichéd idyll that makes the subsequent fall all the more compelling.
A word about JG Ballard and some book suggestions
JG Ballard died of cancer aged 78 on the 19th of April 2009. It is sad to think he will never release another book. He was usually labelled a Sci Fi writer but he frequently strayed from this label to write unique, often dystopian, scenarios that sort of/kind of/might just happen.