trading places

Transblawg picks up a Telegraph story about rich Danish convicts paying other people to go to prison for them. This principle is more generally applicable. For example, the British could easily afford to purchase Portugal, move there, and pay the Portuguese to live in Hull and Hackney. And, if we gave them a bit extra,…

disintermediation and retro-tech

There they go again, blaming the courier (via Prandial). It would never have happened in Roxboro, where peaceful co-existence is the order of the day. In one of those coincidences that herald intestinal difficulties and a tepid spring, it turns out this week was also the last at work for the man know for inventing…

jon cusack, version 2.0

Says Jon Cusack of his new child, Jon Cusack v2.0: I wrote in the birth announcement e-mail stuff, like there’s a lot of features from version 1.0 with additional features from Jamie [his wife]. Fine, but someone explain to me how you put the release date back three months to enable glitch fixes. Via Boing…

Brief history of the decline and fall of the fig

I want to illustrate at ridiculous speed the change in status of Ficus carica – once found outside the back door of farmhouses around the Mediterranean – over the last couple of thousand years. Since you’re all familiar with Genesis 3, I’ll start a bit later, with the Ethiopic version of the Apocalypse of Peter.…