November 2007
75 posts
Best books of 2007
New York Times published a list of the year’s Top 100 books. This was followed by a Top 10. I’m not sure whether it says more about me or the list that I haven’t read any of them. The non-fiction lists in particular do seem to have a massive American bias, but that’s no big surprise given the source. The (American) National Book Critics Circle have put together their own...
Rock Music or Non-rock-Music? →
The Guardian Music blog are asking for everything in the world to be categorised as either “Rock Music” or Non-Rock Music”. John Peel is kept company by “looking around in a crowd of people and knowing that everyone is feeling the same euphoria that you are” in the former category, while Richard Littlejohn sits right next to “species extinction” in the ...
Not just the best album cover ever.
The album cover. The band. The myspace. The CD on sale. I bought the CD after seeing the album cover, it just had to be rewarded, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the music. Male and Female singers against synthy, folky music. Elements of The Fiery Furnaces’ sound, but in an easier to listen to form. Takes some of the catchier bits from Mates of State, but without the terrible...
“With 18.4 million users in October, the Guardian was ahead of nytimes.com, which...”
– Some nice statistics, reportedly due to the launch of Guardian America of which I was unaware. From The Editors Weblog. Update: Seems that the numbers used weren’t all that comparable.
In sad news, Friday saw the last “News Quiz” of the series. Sandi and co. will be missed. In happy news, this coming Friday sees the start of a new “Now Show” series. Very much looking forward to it. In other news, my hometown of Wilmslow was mocked in this evening’s “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue”. Something about footballers and their wives. And...
The Daily Mail School →
“The deal would give the hereditary boss of a media empire that includes the top-selling, staunchly conservative Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, as well as the London Evening Standard, control of the school and, in return for a £2m one-off payment, powers to design the curriculum and the right to hire and fire staff.” What could possibly go wrong?
Let's do Lunch
There’s no Layer Tennis this week because of Thanksgiving (pesky Americans), but the nice Coudal people have put together a difficult-looking logic puzzle that looks like it could give me something fun to do this weekend. I like those kind of things.
Fauborg →
Clever website, interesting page-navigation. Shame it doesn’t work in Opera. (via Coudal)
How to clean blood off a knife →
Just in case you ever needed to know. (I found the link on TMN, honest)
“I’m going to remove the skin, and also any stray bits of charred hay.”
– Heston Blumenthal cooking the perfect fish pie. With the help of burning hay in a squirrel cage.
Dead Children Playing →
A book containing Radiohead album artwork, done by Stanley Donwood. Click through for the artist’s site, or here for the book on Amazon.
The Laptop Club →
Laptops designed by children using paper and crayons. Nice to see that ’Family’ and ’Friends’ are given special buttons on most of the designs, beaten only by ‘Games’ in popularity and prominence. Interesting to see Alana, age 8, giving pride of place next to the spacebar to a ’Firewall’ key. ...
New Yorker Covers →
“Usually cabinet secretaries speak in a language called British, similar to...”
– Simon Hoggart on Whitehall Mandarins
“There were never any hobgoblins, there was always a logical explanation, and it...”
– More from David at 37Signals, on bugs.
WatchTurning a sphere inside out, for those with short attention spans, watch the first 2 minutes, then (if you really have to) skip to ~14. (again, from Kottke)
“There are many words I could use to describe the food served here, but this is a...”
– Jay Rayner in a review of Divo in The Guardian
Hamlet shaken by murder then suicide →
A candidate for best headline? (via Kottke)
The Nerd Handbook →
“A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.”
Cilantro
I came across references to ‘cilantro’ in a few recipes recently and had either been put off when it seemed an important part of the dish, or has just ignored it where it seemed to be a garnish. Turns out it’s just another name for Coriander.
"Concerned Citizens"? →
“It’s like someone who brought cats to fight rats, found himself with too many cats and brought dogs to fight the cats. Now they need elephants.”
Cricket Explained →
Kevin Guilfoile at Coudal explains Cricket, with pies. (Not sure how permanent that link is…)
(re)design by comitee? →
More crowd-powered activity, this time suggesting improvements to common items.
cumul.us - "the wisdom of clouds" →
Collaborative weather-prediction; inevitable really, quite fun though.
On Psychological Profiling
“if you make a great number of predictions, the ones that were wrong will soon be forgotten, and the ones that turn out to be true will make you famous. […] It’s a party trick.” From an interesting New Yorker article on Criminal Profiling: Dangerous Minds.
November 9th
1923 - Beer Hall Putsch 1938 - Kristallnacht 1989 - Berlin Wall comes down “Remember, remember the 9th of November. But who does?” -Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian
“Personas can’t answer questions. Personas don’t have opinions. Personas don’t...”
– Jason at 37Signals on why you should design for real people rather than fabricated personas. (Emphasis Mine.)
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon →
“ Baader-Meinhof is the phenomenon where one happens upon some obscure piece of information– often an unfamiliar word or name– and soon afterwards encounters the same subject again, often repeatedly. ”