Paul

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Never alone with a Strand

I love the elaborate silliness of stuff like this. In London, last summer, A. and I came upon what looked like a big silver dog sitting in the middle of the pavement in the Strand, right in front of the tube station. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a large replica of the ...

A Hollywood moment

To Hollywood last Friday, to see the re-released Life of Brian, and who should be at the screening at a small cinema on Sunset Boulevard but Eric Idle. A Hollywood moment. It reminded me, though, of how few celebrity encounters I’ve had since I’ve been visiting and living in LA during the past six years. ...

Twenty Minutes into the Future

Blipverts are here. Well, sorta. My commercial-radio listening in the US (not counting NPR here, because I don’t think the ads have quite the same feel) is mostly confined to the choice of the bus driver as I travel to and from work: sometimes ESPN, sometimes local hip-hop and R&B. What continue to catch my ...

Artificial intelligence meets natural weirdness

I think this is a fascinating story. Man, name of Jim Wightman, appears from nowhere with plans to launch a phalanx of intelligent chatbots onto the ‘net, in order to sniff out paedophiles getting their jollies in chat-rooms. The story isn’t the hackneyed one of paedophile paranoia, though. It’s far ...

What’s this blog for?

Honestly, I’m not sure yet. We’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. I have a suspicion that the best blogs are either focused on a single issue — the explosion in wonderfully crunchy leftish political blogs being the best example — or deeply personal, like an intra-cranial webcam. Not sure how ...