Jonny Nexus

Category: Life

  • 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…

  • The New Farringdon Station Has Opened!

    Well this is a bit of a train-spotting post, but it’s interesting to me because Farringdon is the station I commute to and from. For a couple of years now, a new extension to the station has been under construction, intended to lengthen the Thameslink platforms to take 12 carriage trains. Construction projects sometimes seem…

  • My Number – What’s Yours?

    A thought the other day got me thinking about all the computers I’ve owned in my life – and in particular just how many of them there have been. I thought it might be fun to look over them, and see just how much things have changed. Of course, that’s if I can remember them…

  • Nothronychus: My New Vegan Hero

    Yesterday, we watched the sixth and final episode of the BBC’s Planet Dinosaur. Entitled “The Great Survivors”, the episode featured one dinosaur I’d not previously heard of, Nothronychus (Wikipedia entry). It instantly became my new vegan hero. Why? Well a clip on the BBC’s website explains: CLIP: Although a close relative of the meat-eating tyrannosaurs,…

  • New Hero Cover Revealed

    I’ve previously mentioned that I have a short story in Stone Skin Press’s forthcoming anthology of iconic heroes, The New Hero. It is 1987. With outposts from the frozen moons of Saturn to the burning plains of Mercury, the sun never sets on the British Empire. Peter “Pete” Stone is a member of the Royal…

  • Can Atheists Be Scouts?

    The answer, incredibly, appears to be no. The Boy Scouts of America are very blunt about it. Their web site first makes it very clear that child members really do need to believe in a God: In the Scout Oath, a Scout promises to do his “duty to God,” and in the Scout Law he…

  • Copyright: Should Is Not Is

    There’s something that annoys me about the behaviour of some (not all!) of the anti-copyright rent-a-mob found in many corners of the Internet that I can best explain through analogy. Imagine you have a man who thinks that motorways (freeways) should have no speed limit, as used to be the case in the UK until…

  • On Lies To Children

    There are many things that annoy me, but one of them is when people tell lies to children. I don’t mean actual, “Of course Uncle Gary isn’t your daddy!” type lies. I’m talking about lazy, false, over- simplified and dumbed-down answers given in response to a child’s curiosity about the world. I think children are…

  • Joanne Pullan 1970-2011

    Last Thursday, at a loud and chaotic Euston station, I received a phone call from my wife to tell me that our friend Joanne Pullan had died the previous evening. Jo had been found collapsed in a park by a bystander, after suffering an asthma attack while walking to the shops. She was taken to…

  • Eastercon: Illustrious 2011

    Next weekend I’ll be at the NEC Birmingham for this year’s Eastercon, Illustrious 2011. This will be my fourth Eastercon, having previously attended Orbital 2008, LX 2009 and Odyssey 2010, and I’m really looking forward to it. Last year I had a really great time, so much so that I wrote it up in a…