De Mello died, Bush lied

Posted on May 14, 2008 | David Steven | More on Off topic, US politics | Comments Off

Earlier today, I noted George Bush’s cretinous and insulting claim that he had given up golf in solidarity with American soldiers who are dying in Iraq. The move, he said, was prompted by the death of UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello:
“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the [...]

Public (school) diplomacy

Posted on April 26, 2008 | Alex Evans | More on Off topic, Public diplomacy | Comments Off

David Miliband writes:
My visit this week to Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq was punctuated with people describing their links to Britain. One conversation particularly sticks in the memory.
I was told by someone that they had great affection for British education. “I studied at Eton, Oxford, Nottingham and London universities”. I congratulated him and said [...]

I spy

Posted on April 11, 2008 | Charlie Edwards | More on Off topic | Comments Off

Currently zipping round cyber space is this picture of Dick Cheney: Vice President of the US of A, keen fisherman and a man who clearly enjoys the finer things in life…

Progressive Governance talk

Posted on April 10, 2008 | David Steven | More on Europe, Global economy, Middle East, Off topic, Religion in politics, Resilience, Scarcity | Comments Off

Below the jump, Alex and my talk at last weekend’s Progressive Governance summit - it’s a four minute summary of our paper on multilateralism and global risks.

Obama: “a nice light reddish amber color”

Posted on April 3, 2008 | Richard Gowan | More on Off topic, US politics | Comments Off

Last month, Sixpoint Craft Ales - with which I share a Brooklyn zip code - launched “Hop Obama”, an electoral ale.  It’ll be around until the Pennsylvania primaries and sounds nice:
In keeping with the Illinois senator’s unifying theme, the “Hop Obama” is an indefinable ale that doesn’t adhere to traditional style guidelines. The 5.2% ABV [...]

Friday caption competition

Posted on March 28, 2008 | Charlie Edwards | More on Off topic | 5 Comments


Nearly the weekend

Posted on March 14, 2008 | Alex Evans | More on Off topic | Comments Off

…so here’s one of the best moments from series 1 of The West Wing:
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Inspiration

Posted on March 4, 2008 | Charlie Edwards | More on Off topic | Comments Off

Quite.

Need to know

Posted on February 6, 2008 | Charlie Edwards | More on Off topic, UK politics | Comments Off

Politicians and the media are up in arms about the bugging scandal involving a Labour MP. But, Fans of Yes, Prime Minister will remember the episode where the PM denies phone tapping an MP in PMQs. There’s only one catch. Here’s the lead in….
Sir Humphrey: So I gather you denied that Mr Halifax’s [...]

On ketchup

Posted on January 28, 2008 | Alex Evans | More on Off topic | Comments Off

Matt Yglesias says:
Every once in a while, I come across a person who still hasn’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s definitive article on ketchup. Well, you should read the article. You probably don’t think ketchup is a very interesting subject, but you’re wrong.
And I began to read, and lo, I saw that he was right. 

Possibly the best television show I’ve ever seen

Posted on January 11, 2008 | Alex Evans | More on Cooperation and coherence, Off topic | Comments Off

David’s going to laugh when he reads this post: he lent me season 1 of The Wire three days ago, and already I find myself compelled to write a post explaining why you too should rush out to secure the DVD (assuming, that is, that if you’re a Brit, you haven’t already been watching it [...]