Friends very often ask whether I feel myself to be American or whether I’m English yet; and I find I always stammer a bit, and hedge. Do I feel like an American? I don’t know. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Colorado, so you could say I’m definitely American. But it… Read More
Archive for the ‘Topical’ Category
A couple weeks ago, I wrote to my MP to raise concern for the so-called “washup” of last-minute legislation being used to push through the now highly-controversial “Digital Economy Bill.” My reasons to write are several, and I will devote some more time to explain these later, but wanted to post my MP’s response verbatim… Read More
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 Category: Digital, Perspective, Topical No Comments
At lunch time today, I learned from a tweet that UK Home Secretary, the Right Honorable Jacqui Smith will resign as soon as convenient to the Prime Minister. Most sources seem to cite the now cliched “expenses scandal” as the main reason, but also mention various moments of Home Secretarial chagrin. My initial reaction was one… Read More
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 Tags: Home Office, Home Secretary, ID Cards, immigration, Jacqui Smith, media-fueled feeding frenzy, MP, Prime Minister, Scotland United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Category: Perspective, Topical No Comments
“Headache by magandafille“ This evening I sent this letter to my ISP in response to their support followup (I’ve removed the company name): Please, please don’t give me a list of troubleshooting tips again… The broadband router is attached directly to the test socket, therefore guaranteed by BT. My microfilter is fine, and I’ve had… Read More
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 Tags: broadband, broadband router, identical systems, ISP, Mac OS X
Category: Digital, Topical 6 Comments
Technorati Tags: immigration,UK Politics,politics,USA,trans-atlantic,interesting Blogging about politics can be a bit of a mixed bag, so we’ll see how it goes. I want to avoid polarising talk, tabloid tactics, and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). Instead, I’d like to discuss the latest raft of changes which seek to make immigrants ‘more British’ before offering them… Read More
Friday, February 22nd, 2008 Tags: BBC, Belgium, Britain, Colorado, commentator, Digital, Domenico Depalo, editorial, European Union, Finsbury Park mosque, Franco Peracchi, GBP, Gordon Brown, Gordon Brown's government, headlines and controversial fundamentalist cleric, Home Secretary, horrible, ideas, immigration, immigration services, Jacqui Smith, London, National Statistics Office, OECD, politics, Radio 4, test site, The Star, the Times, United Kingdom, United States
Category: Topical 21 Comments
I am a firm believer in the idea that a little knowledge is dangerous. When you overhear a conversation in which one person says to another (imagine whatever derisory accent adds to the flavour-I always seem to hear Watford…): "Yeah, ever since I watched that (insert celebrity TV show) the other day, I gave up… Read More
Monday, January 28th, 2008 Tags: Allergies, coffee, ideas, internet buzzwords, internet community, internet culture, internet socialising, Interview, Lee Siegel, speaker, Starbucks, Steve O'Hear, Wall Street Journal, wine
Category: Digital, Topical No Comments
It’s America’s Question Time
This morning, after switching on the kettle, I set my laptop on the kitchen surface and shuffled through the BBC iPlayer’s “Factual” category—looking for something interesting to keep me company as I made my porridge and coffee. I stumbled across Question Time, and noticed that this special edition was being broadcast from the United States—something… Read More
Saturday, November 1st, 2008 Tags: America, BBC, commentator, communication, context, David Dimbleby, historian, Iraq, John McCain, politician, professor, Simon Schama, speaker, United States, White House
Category: Narrative, Topical 9 Comments