A really stupid idea
Put the main competitive event of the football season (given the League position) in the middle of the week.
Rand at 100
Excellent discussion in this MetaFilter thread on the life and philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Death penalty ironies
From the NY Times front page on the web:
“The D.A. [of Los Angeles] said today that he would probably seek the death penalty for the suicidal man who left his S.U.V. on a track.”
Tube photos
Some great photos of tube stations. More interesting than it sounds. (via MeFi)
Techy but strangely fascinating
A history of the new wide-screen test card.
Desperate times
Two sorts of desperation on display today. The Conservative party have said they’ll make immigration a central issue of the election campaign. And Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has declared war on the principle of democracy.
In the buffer zone
Rereading my last post, I realise that I am perfectly qualified to be a high-paid “diary” columnist on the Daily Telegraph. The Barclay Brothers can email me for the address to send the cheques.
Where have the pianos gone?
It’s perhaps a slightly random thought, but I was listening to a piece of a ragtime music just now, and it occurred to me that you never see a piano in a pub these days. You find them in London bars sometimes – usually covered in pint-glass marks – but most landlords would no more think of having a piano in the pub than they would think of having a chamber orchestra.
This is not me being an old git – I don’t ever remember seeing a piano in a pub, with the possible exception of the Angler’s Retreat at Marsworth – I just wonder where the pianos that the cheery cockneys crowded round in the Blitz have gone. Is there a corner of the country where you can still find a piano in a pub? And if so, does anyone ever play it?
A face that would…
The Stopped Clocks Foundation is dedicated to the worthy cause of getting all the stopped church clocks, town hall clocks and other public timepieces going again. Send them your stopped clock pictures. (via BoingBoing)