As many of you know, new Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has scrapped the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. In response, the private and charitable sector (as one would expect) has swung into action. Now, there are all sorts of arguments both for and against state-sponsored literary awards, some of which I canvassed in my post on [...]
With the awful inevitability of a dog chasing deer into oncoming traffic in Richmond Park, I present to you Trenton Oldfield (Hell’s bells, the names even rhyme), Australia’s shame. Yesterday, Trenton Oldfield did this at the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race: First, Sir Matthew Pinsent, the former Olympic rower, thought he saw debris in the water. Then, [...]
By skepticlawyer
|
Also posted in Academia, Australia, Britain, England, Fark!, Funnies, Popular culture, Sport, The Left
|
Tagged Cambridge, Contemporary Urbanism, Emily Davison, Fenton, London School of Economics, LSE, OUBC, Oxford, Sir Matthew Pinsent, The Offspring, This is Not a Gateway, Trenton Oldfield, University Boat Race, Will Zeng, Zoe de Toledo
|
I’m blogging about Easter again, sorry. This time spurred by an online conversation between friends about the appropriateness or not of being wished “Happy Easter” on Good Friday. Classicists of the world, wrack off – yes I DO know the entire event was probably lifted from pre-existing pagan rites of spring, but for the purposes [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
|
Also posted in Art, Australia, Blogging, Britain, Fark!, General, History, Media, Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture, Religion, Skeptics, Society, Terrorism
|
Tagged 9/11, christianity, Easter, ground zero, islam, Jesus, Jonathan Jones, Judaism, magnum, New York, photography, september 11th, the guardian, the meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo, The Passion, Thomas Hoepker, twin towers
|
February 20, 2012 – 6:53 pm
… Just sayin’. I saw this handwritten on a notice stuck to the bar in a pub the other day, and I thought it was pretty good — good enough to steal, anyway. As many of our readers know, we run advertisements on this blog with a view to paying Jacques for his sterling efforts, [...]
December 24, 2011 – 12:54 pm
Wishing all of you — co-bloggers, commenters, readers, lurkers — a very merry Christmas and a fantastic new year.
October 21, 2011 – 1:23 pm
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert… Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on [...]
It’s really annoying. You go to all the trouble of arranging a Royal Zombie Wedding Celebration and nobody comes… …because they’re kettled by the police a few blocks away being stopped and searched, questioned, arrested and drug tested. “Sorry son, you’re positive for formaldehyde. We’ll have to take you in…” We asked if we could [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
|
Also posted in Britain, Fark!, Free Speech, General, Human/Civil rights, Law, Media, Personal liberty, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture, science fiction, Sexuality, Skeptics, Society
|
Tagged Banksy, british monarchy, british police, Chris Knight, constitutional convention, FITwatch, flashmob, Forward Intelligence Taskforce, Liberty, London, magna carta, metropolitan police, muslims against crusades, parliament, police, protest, public order, quakers, queer resistance, royal family, royal wedding, section 44, section 60, starbucks, stop and search, street party, the westminster system, UK parliament, zombie arrests, zombie flashmob, zombie royal wedding celebration, zombies
|
April 28, 2011 – 11:28 pm
UPDATE: But sometimes, it’s just nice when the fuss is all over…
By DeusExMacintosh
|
Also posted in Australia, Britain, Funnies, History
|
Tagged ABC, afghanistan, archbishop of caterbury, Australian Broadcasing Coporation, barry humphries, BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, buckingham palace, centrepoint, cherie blair, clarence house, coldstream guards, commonwealth, court of st james, dame edna, david cameron, fiona goble, Gordon Brown, guy ritchie, have i got news for you, horseguards, ian hislop, irish guards, john major, Kate Middleton, kiss me kate beer, knit your own royal wedding, lego, London, margaret thatcher, muslims against crusades, Nick Clegg, paul merton, pez, prince charles, Prince Harry, prince philip, prince william, protest, Queen Elizabeth II, RAF search and rescue force, rowan williams, royal wedding, royal wedding sick bags, scots guards, st andrews university, the chaser, tony blair, UK coalition government, UK conservative party, UK labour party, UK liberal democrats, westminster abbey, windsor castle
|
For Melbournites who are interested, I am giving a talk next Tuesday on ‘The Limits of Law’ for the Australian Adam Smith Club. It is a dinner meeting on Tuesday the 8th of March 2011, at the Curry Club Cafe, 396 Bridge Rd, Richmond 3141 at 6:30pm for dinner at 7:00pm. The Club tells me [...]
February 22, 2011 – 10:24 pm
The following organisations are accepting donations for those affected by the earthquake. Donate online at www.salvationarmy.org.nz By Post: The Salvation Army , PO Box 27 001 Marion Square, Wellington 6141, New Zealand. Please specify that your donation is for the Canterbury Earthquake Appeal. The Red Cross has launched an 0900 Appeal Members of the public [...]