Jonathan Sanderson’s weblog, since 2001.
Sadly, the website of the Bryson Gore Appeciation Society doesn’t appear to be in Google’s mighty database. Indeed, only one sole remnent of the Cult of Gore appears to remain: here. Curious.
Nevertheless, it was a delight to catch up with him last night. Sometime, remind me to tell the story of the previous time I met Bryson: it bears repetition.
There’s an extent to which the sniping at Media Studies courses is just another example of a bizarre combination under which Britain seems to labour: that of failing to value erudition, while simultaneously deriding the (perceived) stupid.
Certainly, I think it ludicrous to encourage Media Studies graduates to read Physics instead, when the former is more employable than the latter. Also, I’ve started seeing terrifically able, driven, inspirational, witty and knowledgeable Media Studies graduates – a far cry from the mostly sullen and – let’s be blunt – thick mob who threw themselves on Monday’s Guardian recruitment pages only a few years ago.
Sure, it is ludicrous that there are more students of television studies than there are people making the stuff. But to dismiss the entire subject on that basis is to be both a snob and an inverted-snob simultaneously. Which feat I admire, but hardly wish to repeat.
Ben Hammersley unwittingly sends me on my way to Leeds with a long-lasting chuckle, care of this piece about the end of the world, and John Peel.
No more stories from Afghanistan sadly – it’s all pukka journalism now, with him getting paid and all – but the pictures are outstanding. Lovely, lovely portraits.
Speaking of Trinity Hall – anyone applying? Steve?
No? Harrumph.
The other day, having pretty much run out of clean clothes – as one does – I was wearing an old College sports top. Not that I was any more of a sportsman at university than I am now: this was for a group that did crosswords while eating cakes, of a Sunday afternoon. It’s a long story.
Anyway, a colleague asked what the coat of arms on the breast was for. I explained. ‘Oh,’ he observed, ‘nothing Muslim, then?’ – for the arms do indeed feature, prominently, a crescent. It’s a curious crescent, on its back (as it were), and looking as much like a croissant as anything. My colleague wondered whether this arrangement could be interpreted as offensive. I hadn’t considered that, and spent the rest of the day worried I’d committed some dreadful religious faux pas.
Then tonight, I had one of those sudden ‘Hang on a…’ moments, and invoked Google. As best I can tell, from sites like this, the crescent didn’t come into common use in Islam until after 1453. My college’s use predates this by a little over a century: it’s taken from the arms of the founder, Bishop Bateman, whose family presumably used it considerably prior. So, no conflict at all.
Sometimes we forget the scale of our history.
It would be helpful, in an article about journalistic integrity, for the author to know the difference between elicit and illicit. One might think.
A litany of errors by BT that mirrors my own saga with Cable and Wireless (as was – AKA ‘Cabal and Clueless’), of three years ago. At one point I called them from a phone they insisted (a.) wasn’t theirs, (b.) wasn’t in my name, and (c.) wasn’t even connected… and then they billed me for the call anyway. There are still two set-top boxes in my flat they swear blind I can’t possibly have, since these particular serial numbers are supposedly installed in other peoples’ houses.
So, when I finally move into a new flat, are any telcos worth signing up with?
[Update: having commented on this entry, Alan’s NTL account has been deleted. You couldn’t make this up.]
The day after we interviewed Colin Prescot for Science Shack, the (paper)(hot air) balloon we were making collapsed during inflation. We managed to over-pressure the thing, and blew a seam at the top. Now it looks like exactly the same thing has happened to Colin’s balloon, Qinetiq 1. Poor sods.
Credit to Qinetiq for voicing their continued support for the project. If you recall, the flight was due last summer but an appropriate weather window failed to materialise, so they’ve been on board for at least three years.
That’s odd. Microsoft will allow a major supplier to deliver a PC configured without a bundled operating system. So long as it’s Virtual PC for Mac, apparently – the ‘standalone’ package is a raw PC in software, on which you can install your choice of Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OPENSTEP, OS/2 Warp, etc etc.
Well, I think it’s funny.
[chorus off: ‘Geek!’]
We moved offices on Friday, from the department being scattered all over the building to us all being together on the ground floor. Well, there’s a ‘core’ office, and a ‘production’ office – the latter having about thirty desks, of which currently one is occupied. The one I’m at. The rest of the room is a total bomb-site, filing cabinets and chairs piled on top of each other, stack-boxes of papers as high as the Berlin Wall, that sort of thing. There’s a chap in here drilling, and another painting, and somebody plumbing in PCs. Desks and drawers are strewn wildly.
It’s like working in the CTU, around about hour seven of 24 season 2.