What should we be doing while they make art?
Let’s be honest, the huge size of the People’s Vote demonstration and the huge number of signatories on the petition to revoke Article 50 are both very impressive. They show that millions of people...
View ArticleThe European Union has passed Articles 11 and 13 of the Copyright Directive....
The European Parliament has voted in favour of Article 13, reports Wired: European politicians have voted to pass Article 13 and Article 11 as part of sweeping changes to regulation around online...
View ArticleDominic Frisby needs another week to get the video up
I did the blogging equivalent of buying shares in Dominic Frisby quite a while ago now. More significantly, from Frisby’s point of view, Guido Fawkes has been boosting him, most recently by remembering...
View ArticleA little phrase to look out for
The Times Saturday magazine features the latest of its series of quick interviews in which a famous person tells the readers “What I’ve learnt”. This one is with that fine actor, Jared Harris. Among...
View ArticlePerils of alternate history wargaming
A father and son duo run a YouTube channel about historical tabletop wargaming called “Imperator Vespasian”. They run through demo games, talk about making and painting models and so on. Recently they...
View ArticleHow we are saved from limiting ourselves
“First ads banned for contravening UK gender stereotyping rules”, reported the Guardian some days ago. Two television ads, one featuring new dads bungling comically while looking after their babies and...
View ArticlePlanned obsolescence
Leaping from link to link like a young gazelle – part of the appeal of the internet is that it is the only place where I get to do the gazella arabica thing nowadays – I came across an interesting...
View ArticlePresident Bush will soon bring Gilead to America!
Some time ago a striking article by Fiona Maddocks appeared in the London Evening Standard. The link that Google gives you to the Evening Standard’s own site is dead, but I found a working one on...
View ArticleNational anthem of Libertaria
The excellent Dominic Frisby is crowdfunding a music video for his National Anthem of Libertaria. He is very much out there spreading good ideas, including in such unfriendly territory as the Edinburgh...
View ArticleArs longa, vita brevis
The Guardian reports, “Sculptor Antony Gormley plans Brexit giants off the French coast”: Now, on the eve of Britain’s potential departure from Europe, Gormley is planning a new and dramatic...
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South Park says sorry
Yes, South Park grovels: Some background here: After the “Band in China” episode mocked Hollywood for shaping its content to please the Chinese government, Beijing has responded by deleting all clips,...
View ArticleTyler Cowen says Joker is an anti-egalitarian film
I read so many scathing — forgive me long and thorough and scathing — reviews of this one that I figured something had to be up. And indeed there is. However unpleasant and disturbing this movie may...
View ArticleA lot of politics consists of politicians doing one of these two things
Here. In case the video at the other end of that link disappears, what we see is a guy on a railway platform bringing a train to a halt, with great effort. And then he gets it going again, with even...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“I came here to die with you. Or live with you. Dying ain’t so hard for men like you and me. It’s living that’s hard when all you’ve ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don’t live...
View ArticleThe lost chord, correction, TUC booklet
Seated one day at the organ I was weary and ill at ease And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys I know not what I was playing Or what I was dreaming then; But I struck one chord of music Like...
View ArticleThe Attorney General reads “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”
Like it says on the tin, here is a video in which Geoffrey Cox reads ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. No political point is being made. I just thought he read it rather well. If the politics gig...
View ArticleRicky Gervais, the best man at a wedding who shouts out “Don’t marry, mate!”
Ricky Gervais’s opening comments at the Golden Globes in Hollywood (I assume he is not doing them ever again) are rightly being lauded around the non-PC parts of the internet/media world for telling...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
You don’t go to a cultural war with the army you want, you go with the army you have. – ‘Mary Contrary‘
View ArticlePlus ça change…
I’ve been rootling around in the Samizdata archives (more of which to come, perhaps) and I found this: In the bubbled, hypocritical mind of some in Hollywood, the only reason Gervais crossed a line is...
View ArticleTwo snapshots of our times
1) Eurogamer reports, PC Specialist ad banned for perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes An advert for a bespoke PC retailer was banned for perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes of women. The TV ad,...
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