Not just stateless, microscopically stateless
The Wikipedia article European Microstates is not responding. We are slightly worried - have they been annexed? (We like microstates - even the Vatican, without which what would we hate?)
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2006-01-13 17:28
Not just stateless, microscopically statelessThe Wikipedia article European Microstates is not responding. We are slightly worried - have they been annexed? (We like microstates - even the Vatican, without which what would we hate?)
2006-01-13 14:06
Why I am so very cheapIt is newspaper freebies!
Rupert Murdoch hates them. The home entertainment toppers of the Hollywood studios regard them as a disaster for the DVD business. And they drive video retailers crazy. Tomorrow it's Closely Observed Trains in the Indybladet, but we haven't seen a coming-attractions blog.
And it's not just happening in the U.K. The German and Polish markets have been equally blighted by newspaper giveaways. German newspapers gave their readers a staggering 36 million DVD movies in September and October. Blight me harder, for sure!
2006-01-13 11:53
Genderbug!
Genderbug genderbug fly away home, There's more than one (1) that crept under this constitutional frying pan. Item:
Brittiska prinsar har ocks� i framtiden f�retr�de till den brittiska tronen - �ven om det finns en �ldre syster i familjen. Brittiska parlamentets �verhus avvisade p� onsdagen ett f�rslag om att �ldst g�r f�rst till tronen oavsett k�n. How pants is that?! Also; item:
Victoria f�r inte bli "godsherre" som pappa. Such sillinesses! Make them stop!
2006-01-12 17:41
For shame, Danmark!
Ander Fogh lover sin tjekkiske kollega, at unders�ge om �starbejdere holdes udenfor Danmark af bureaukratiske regler. We can predict the results of the research right now: "It turns out that's the way we like it, non-Danish suckers! Boo ya!"
2006-01-12 14:22
A day well spentThe bug was that the I was using one version of Python 2.3 (in /usr/) and unwittingly including a different set of Python 2.3 header files, which had a different set of values for an enum type I was relying on (in /usr/local). How very jolly of them to change such somethings within the sequence of 2.3 releases! What larks, eh, Varied Reader, what larks!
2006-01-12 10:56
Belgium, man! Belgium!It is inexplicable Francophone singingsensation Johnny Halliday, who wishes - as surely we all do deep down - to become Belgian and is willing - as who would not be? - to sacrifice his French citizenship in the process. Incidentally, there is no truth at all in the rumours that we falsified the evidence of our successful and ground-breaking cloning of Belgium. Check the map, Varied Reader; check the map!
2006-01-11 21:16
Careful!
Of course, one of these interpretations is not right and the other wrong [...]
First time out we read this as "one of these interpretetations is incorrect and the other one wrong", which struck us as endearingly cantankerous. But second time through we found a sensibler reading, chiz chiz.
2006-01-11 16:57
FastidiosisThe problem with learning to appreciate almost anything is that opportunities enjoy said something being done well are vastly outnumbered by opportunities to unenjoy it being done badly. We, of course, are smarter than the average emperor and we have carefully avoided developing a palette for wine or much aesthetic sense generally for just this reason. But we've learned a very very very very very little bit about typography in the last few weeks, and now almost everything we try to read hurts our eyes. Learn from our mistake on this one, Varied Reader - stay ignorant.
2006-01-11 13:58
What do you mean "invited"?
A high-tech scanner that digitally "strips" travellers on their way to their plane or train will go on trial for four weeks from Thursday at a major London rail station, officials said. As if the Heathrow "Express" wasn't irritating enough already!
2006-01-11 10:07
Beware the Schwyzerd�tsch, my son:The jaws that bite, the claws that catch, isn't it?
La vague du schwyzerd�tsch qui a d�ferl� sur le pays depuis pr�s de quarante ans ne fragilise pas seulement la coh�sion f�d�rale. Elle commence � faire du tort aux Suisses al�maniques eux-m�mes. En se fermant l'acc�s � un espace germanophone qui est le plus fort d�mographiquement parlant du continent europ�en, ils risquent la marginalisation.
Toute la Suisse al�manique conquise par le dialecte? A en croire les propos et les habitudes de la jeune g�n�ration, il n'y a aucun doute. C'est exclusivement en dialecte qu'on s'envoie des SMS. On �crit aussi massivement en dialecte dans les forums internet. Quant au rap en bernois, il a pris la t�te des ventes de disques depuis deux ans. Also, you might want to shun the Bandersnatch�it's looking pretty frumious just lately.
2006-01-10 16:32
Things we put on back to front today
It's a polo-shirt day, otherwise we'd prolly 've managed that too.
2006-01-10 14:31
Why is it never Dutch, eh?It is G�ran H�gg, Swedishperson at large, and it is especially his annual upproundning of schoolbooks! In very particular, French and German textbooks, which he finds good, but:
Problemet n�r det g�ller till exempel spanska, franska och tyska �r ett annat: styrande myndigheter vill avskaffa timplanen — vilket �r en fara f�r alla spr�k utom engelska: ” Despite their alleged excellence, we're sticking with the Frankfurter Allegorical Zossagebladet's skihoppning articles and our ancient Teach Yourselfs, thanks.
2006-01-10 11:23
Yow! Are we banned in China yet?Congratulations to the 'Pedia, which is:
Chinese students and intellectuals are expressing outrage at Beijing's decision to prohibit access to Wikipedia, the fast-growing on-line encyclopedia that has become a basic resource for many in China. We are now idly curious to see what Microsoft's fearless and heroic lapdogs have perpetrated on the subject in the Chinese edition of Encarta.
2006-01-09 18:03
Sorry, non-WegiophonesIt is an unusually good article on newspaper fonts, but it is in Zwedish. Did you know that Linotype's textype retains a loyal following among Zwedish 'bladets? Neither did we.
2006-01-09 13:48
Sm�rg�spost�1. Yes, we have no banana republics! It is Espain, where the head of the army's ground forces suggested that the uppity Cataloonies could maybe benefit from a dose of cold steel to teach them a lesson, and became in the process the ex-head of the army's ground forces:
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono has said comments by a general suggesting military intervention in Catalonia are not supported by the armed forces. In our informal Euro-Loony Index modern Espain lags a long way behind Greeceland or Italia, and it looks like they want to keep it that way. �2. Of prinsesses and pecking orders It is prinsess Madeleine of Zweden! And Hello! magazine has awarded her an award:
Prinsessan Madeleines stj�rnstatus bara v�xer. We've been on the prinsess beat long enough to remember when the Prinsessmary of Danmark and even Mette-Marit were on this list, and we wonder how exactly they got off it. We suspect their various sproggnings had something to do with it, but the example of M-M shows that it must be post-prinsessly sproggning that is the decisive factor. �3. Mozart, Shmozart! It is the bicentenary of John Stuart "Wind" Mill this year!
A major international and inter-disciplinary Conference will be held at UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, scheduled for 5-7 April 2006, to mark the bicentenary of the birth of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). We now return you to your regularly scheduled period-instrument performance of Die Zauberfl�te.
2006-01-09 11:58
Sm�rg�spost�1. Skispringen Doppelsieg It is Janne "The Manne" Ahohen and Jakub Janda - unprecedented doublewinners of Hoppweek!
Es war das spannendste Finish aller Zeiten. Und es endete vers�hnlich: Janne Ahonen und Jakub Janda haben gemeinsam mit 1081,5 Punkten die 54. Vierschanzen-Tournee gewonnen. �2. Circulate me harder! It is a list of the biggest circulations in Yoorp
1 Bild Germany 4 220 000 * 2001 circulation Table 2: Top 20 newspapers in EU based on 2002 circulation (Source: World Press Trends 2002, International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulation) �3. Make your time, "Pope" It is insolence from the Vatican:
A draft treaty between Slovakia and the Holy See would allow hospital staff to refuse to do abortions or fertility treatment on religious grounds. For now it is, for now... |