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What The Titanic Can Tell Us About George Osborne
On Sunday, it will be exactly one hundred years since the sinking of the Titanic. Certain, best not mentioned, persons on Twitter aside, it’s an event widely recollected, with many lessons that have gone into history. The main two of these are, of course: 1) Make sure your ship has enough lifeboats to rescue everyone…
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A Gopher’s Guide To Gophering
Eastercon is the British national science-fiction convention. I’ve attending five Eastercons in total. In 2010, I volunteered for the first time as a gopher. Since then I’ve spent something like twenty-five hours gophering, if we’re counting, which I am even if you’re not. I think it’s a cool thing to do, so I thought I’d…
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On The North-South Divide
There often seems to be a lot of confusion about where precisely in the UK “The North” begins. I’ve just seen a particularly egregious example in which a friend who hails from the Birmingham area (strictly speaking, Coventry, I understand) appeared to be being somewhat scornful of Northerners, apparently blissfully unaware that if he is…
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My Thoughts On Christopher Priest’s Clarke Awards Broadside
Christopher Priest is an author whose work I like. While I can’t claim to have read any of his recent works, The Inverted World and especially A Dream of Wessex are on my all-time favourites list. They say you should never meet your heroes, but perhaps in the modern era that aphorism should be revised…
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The Best School Lesson I Ever Had
A chance remark today led me to remember what might well be the best school lesson I ever had. Certainly, I can’t think of something that not only taught me a particular point both effectively and efficiently, but was also wonderfully fun into the bargain. The teacher in question was Mister Ready (pronounced “Reedy”), who…
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Dear Sean, Talk To Them, Not Me!
A couple of weeks ago, Sean Penn decided to throw his weight behind the Argentine claim to the Falklands, or at least to state that the UK should enter negotiations over the islands’ (and the Falkland Islanders) fate. He was roundly criticised by many, including me, for not appearing to particularly give a damn about…
Jonny Nexus 